Mwangi Ndirangu

Quality of learning facilities and learning environment: Challenges for teaching and learning in Kenya's public universities

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to report findings on the perceptions of quality of educational facilities in Kenyan public universities, and the implications for teaching/learning, and the learning environment.Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted an exploratory descriptive design. A total of 332 and 107 undergraduate students and academic staff respectively from five public universities were randomly selected to participate in the study. The questionnaire was used for data collection.Findings – The quality of the library, online resources and lecture facilities provided by Kenyan public universities did not meet quality measures of adequacy. They were unable to support the desired educational programmes effectively and facilitate the development of learning environments that support students and teachers in achieving their goals. The facilities were the antithesis of healthy and secure facilities that can provide a stimulating/inspirational setting for the users, critical measures of ...

An improvement in instructional quality: can evaluation of teaching effectiveness make a difference?

Purpose – To report study findings on teaching effectiveness and feedback mechanisms in Kenyan universities, which can guide management in developing a comprehensive quality control policy.Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted an exploratory descriptive design. Three public and two private universities were randomly selected to participate in the study. A random sampling procedure was also used to select 79 respondents to participate in the research. A questionnaire administered in all participating universities was the main instrument for data collection.Findings – There was no clear university policy on the evaluation of teaching effectiveness, despite its importance in quality control. Student evaluation of teaching effectiveness (SETE) was found to be unreliable, although widely used where evaluation existed, without other evaluation support systems. Feedback from the evaluation, though crucial in professional improvement, was not made available to the respondents.Research limitations/implic...