Abstract:
Student teaching is first and foremost a learning situation; hence the school context in which
it takes place is quite important. This paper examines contextual characteristics of teaching
practice schools and supervision of student teachers in Kenya based on a study on
perceptions on the influence of the school context on teacher interns’ performance in Moi
University. It is concerned with whether and how the school context is taken into
consideration when posting, supervising/assessing and grading student teachers during
teaching practice. School contextual supervision and assessment related challenges are
highlighted. Data was collected using questionnaires and interviews from a sample of 31
university supervisors and 148 fourth year Bachelor of Education students in the Degree
programmes offered in the School of Education. Frequencies and percentages were computed
using the SPSS computer package. The findings revealed that financial-related concerns were
the overriding factors in the posting of the student teachers to teaching practice schools.
School contextual characteristics with regard to professional concerns related to the
opportunities the schools would accord the student teachers for practice was least taken into
consideration. Consequently, supervision was affected such that student teachers were
sometimes penalized for issues that were beyond their control during assessment because the
school context was rarely taken into consideration. It is therefore recommended that
contextual characteristics of teaching practice schools such as the availability and quality of
cooperating teachers and teaching/learning resources among others, be taken into
consideration when posting and supervising/assessing and grading student teachers.
