Relationship between Competence and Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Classroom Instruction by Secondary School Agriculture Teachers in Nyamira County, Kenya

Research studies in the past decade have shown that ICTs are effective means for widening educational opportunities. However, their use in classroom instruction by most agriculture teachers is limited. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between competence and use of ICTs in classroom instruction by secondary school agriculture teachers in Nyamira County, Kenya. Descriptive survey design was adopted in this study. The target population comprised 215 secondary school agriculture teachers from the five Sub-counties of Nyamira County. Proportionate to size, stratified random sampling was used to obtain a sample size of 120 respondents. A semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The instrument was evaluated by two research experts in the Department of Agricultural Education and Extension of Egerton University for its content and face validity and was pilot tested in south Gucha Sub-county of Kisii County for reliability. The reliability coefficient of the instrument was found to be ?= 0.77 which was above the 0.70 threshold acceptable reliability. Descriptive and inferential statistics (Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation) were used for data analysis. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 was used in analysing data and all tests were computed at ?=0.05. The study established a significant relationship between teachers’ ICT competence and the use of ICTs in classroom instruction (r=0.52; p<0.05). The study recommends that the Ministry of Education and school administrators should provide ICT resources to schools, provide training opportunities and support to teachers for effective use of ICTs in classroom instruction.