The qualities of effective secondary school teachers and criteria for selection of secondary teachers in Kenya

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument for recruitment of teacher trainees from the qualities of effective teachers identified and validated in this study. In Kenya, teacher resource is recognized as the most critical input to the education system. Teachers selection, training and utilization Is therefore critical to the quality of learning. However, there is no existing research based criteria of selecting teacher trainees into teacher education programme. A total of 475 participants drawn from secondary schools from Nyanza, Western and Rift valley provinces. Stratified simple random sampling was used to select and recruit these participants. Participants were given questionnaires containing items on the qualities of the effective teachers and were required to give structured responses. The statements contained in the questionnaires were coded and analyzed using exploratory factor analysis. This study revealed that students perceived effective secondary school teachers as those who possessed cognitive, pedagogical, affective, professional, spiritual and counseling qualities. Secondly, a selection criterion for recruitment of teacher trainees into teacher training programmes was developed. This criteria is useful to teacher educators and employers in the recruitment of teacher trainees into teacher education, as well as graduate teachers into teaching profession.