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

 
Relevance of Types of Learning Resources Used 
for Teaching SEE 
The study also investigated the extent to which 
resources used for teaching were relevant to the 
objectives. Hence the research question “are relevant 
learning resources available in secondary schools?” 
was posed to teachers. Types of learning resources 
that could positively appeal to the learners senses 
when used for teaching were considered to be 
relevant. Teachers were asked to respond to various 
statements to show the relevance of the resources 
they were using. Their responses are indicated in 
Table 4.
All the 120(100%) teachers agreed to the statement 
‘learning resources when used make learning more 
meaningful’. This was interpreted to mean that SEE 
teachers recognized the fact that learning resources 
although 
used 
occasionally, 
made 
learning 
meaningful to students. Therefore they were in 
agreement that learning resources were valuable tools 
in teaching SEE. Regarding the statement ‘Learning 
Resources are valuable teaching tools’, only 50(42%) 
teachers strongly agreed, 70(58%) agreed, none of 
them was either undecided, disagreed or strongly 
disagreed to the statement. This meant that majority 
of those who taught SEE were positive about the 
value of learning resources for teaching SEE because 
of the change in behaviour of students after using 
these resources for teaching.
With respect to the statement ‘Learning resources 
arouse learning interest in student’ 50(42%) teachers 
strongly agreed, 48(40%) agreed, 22(18%) were 
undecided and none of them either disagreed or 
strongly disagreed. This was interpreted to mean that 
when teachers used types of learning resources for 
teaching the students attentions is captured and they 
direct their minds on learning. Therefore, those 
learning resources that helped students to attain 
positive results in behaviour were relevant to the 
objectives.
To the statement ‘Learning resources expose students 
to practical experiences’ recorded a total of 36(30%) 
teachers strongly agreed, 74(62) agreed, 10(8%) 
teachers were undecided and none of them either 
disagreed or strongly disagreed. The fact that a higher 
percentage of teachers agreed to the statement meant 
that learning resources were important therefore 
relevant for teaching SEE.
The statement ‘types of learning resources used make 
knowledge on SEE more life-like and interesting 
hence enables students to elicit positive change in 
behaviour’. A total of 60(50%) teachers strongly 
agreed, 50(42%) agreed, while 10(8%) of them were 
undecided about the statement. However, none of the 
teachers either disagreed or strongly agreed to the 
statement. This means that if learning resources are 
geared towards SEE objectives, and carefully selected 
as to appeal to all the senses of a learner, could cause 
a positive change in behaviour. Therefore such 
resources are relevant for teaching.
The statement ‘Learning resources cater for 
individual differences’ recorded a total of 40(33%) 
response from teachers who strongly agreed to the 
statement, 74(62%) of them agreed, 6(5%)
 
were 
undecided, and none of them either agreed or 
strongly disagreed. The implication here is that SEE 
teachers acknowledged the relevance of learning 
resources they were using for teaching SEE. Only 
smaller percentage of 22(18%) and 10(8%) of 
teachers did not know the value of using learning 
resources for teaching SEE. The fact that SEE 
teachers were not trained could account for the 

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Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies (JETERAPS) 4(1):133-140 (ISSN:2141-6990)
139 
responses of those who did not acknowledge the 
importance of learning resources in catering for 
individual differences when used for teaching. This 
was interpreted to mean lack of knowledge of SEE 
objectives. Probably the types of learning resources 
they were using to teach were not relevant. 
However, a teacher could only achieve the stated 
objectives as indicated in Table 5if the importance 
and relevance of a resource in the process of learning 
is put into consideration before he/she settles down to 
use it in a lesson. Masinjila (1996) suggests that a 
teacher could easily recognize the types of resource 
needed for teaching after breaking resources into 
specific categories. The implication here is that 
learning resources for teaching SEE are relevant 
when they are arranged in accordance to the 
objectives geared towards moulding desirable 
behaviour of the learner. According to the Republic 
of Kenya (1964), SEE has a moral responsibility to 
the learner. Therefore, any learning resource 
channelled towards achievement of this goal is 
relevant.