Criteria for Selecting Relevant Learning Resources by Teachers of Social Education and Ethics in Bungoma District, Kenya

 
Selection and Use of Types of Learning Resources 
for Teaching SEE
This study considered a few factors to have influence 
on teacher selection and use of types of learning for 
teaching. Teachers were therefore asked to give 
views on what they thought could help in the 
achievement of SEE goals as follows: departmental 
heads of humanities (HODs) were asked to indicate 
teacher’s views when allocated to teach SEE lessons. 
The findings
 
indicated that 56(70%)
 
teachers 
willingly accepted to teach SEE, and 24(30%) of 
them were forced to teach. The high percentage 
recorded by the first response was interpreted to 
mean that though SEE lacked trained teachers, as 
proved by Makori (1999), the subject was interesting 
hence those allocated to teach liked the content. The 
unwillingness to teach as indicated by a smaller 
percentage of 24(30%) was attributed to the fact that 
SEE teachers did not like the subject because it was 
not their area of specialization. This may explain the 
reason why most SEE teachers had a low opinion 
about the use of learning resources to teach SEE.
This implied that only teaches who were willing to 
teach the subject would often select and use types of 
learning resources necessary for teaching as 
compared to those not willing and are forced to teach. 
This was interpreted to mean that a willing teacher is 
motivated to do more research and attend to students 
needs. Selection and proper use of these learning 
resources is part of the role of a willing teacher. An 
investigation was carried out to ascertain the extent to 
which HODs influenced selection of learning 
resources and whether SEE teachers acknowledged 
this role or not. Available data indicated a total of 
10(8%) teachers were of the opinion that ‘the HODs 
should strictly supervise use of learning resources 
used by SEE teachers’. This implied that supervision 
was to ensure proper selection of types of learning 
resources to be used for teaching SEE.
A total of 30(25%) teachers were of the opinion that 
‘SEE students should be asked questions related to 
content learnt with use of learning resources’. 
Students’ responses could help the teacher to gauge 
whether his/her use of learning resources had positive 
impact on the learner. This could only be attained 
with proper selection of the most relevant types of 
learning resources therefore a teacher has an 
important role to play in selecting resources. This 
implies that if teachers carefully selected relevant 
types of learning resources for teaching, students 
were better placed to provide relevant feedback; their 
responses could give a clear picture of the impact 
attained after use of these resources. Careful selection 
and use of learning resources for teaching helped 
them to attain and retain the learnt content. This is in 
line with Mukwa’s (1988) sentiments that the 
selected resource should give accurate information 
and help memory of content.
The findings on teachers’ suggestions on how to meet 
SEE goals reported 22(19%) of them being positive 
about HODs’ supervisory role on selection and use of 
types of learning resources for teaching SEE. These 

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Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies (JETERAPS) 4(1):133-140 (ISSN:2141-6990)
137 
teachers agreed to the statement that ‘SEE teachers 
could be helped by HODs to choose relevant types of 
learning resources for specific lessons’. This response 
had a lot of implication and was interpreted to mean 
that some teachers were positive about working under 
supervision in order to enhance better selection of the 
most relevant types of learning resources for teaching 
SEE. This would go a long way in helping the 
learners to want to learn more. The role of HODs in 
the implementation of SEE objectives with use of the 
types of learning resources is enforced.
According to Mukwa (1988), when selecting media 
to be used for teaching, a teacher could put into 
consideration 
the 
objectives, 
presentation 
of 
information and responses to be evoked. This means 
that with the help of HODs, teachers could be helped 
to select relevant types of learning resources. 
However, majority of the teachers, with 58(48%) 
response, expressed concern over the teaching of SEE 
teachers. They agreed to the statement that ‘the 
government should train SEE teachers to be posted to 
schools for proper utilization of available learning 
resources in schools. These attitudes although 
healthy, definitely affect teacher selection of types of 
learning resources to be used for teaching in schools. 
This accounts for the various responses against 
teacher selection of the most relevant types of 
learning resources. Mukwa (1988) provides the 
variables to consider in the selection of instructional 
media. They include: lesson objectives and even 
individual leaner characteristics, among others. 
Therefore, a trained teacher could be in a better 
position to base on the subjects methodology and 
choose resources in relation to objectives.