Volume 5, Issue 2, February – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology

ISSN No:-2456-2165

Influence of Role Play Teaching Technique on

Secondary School Students’ Acquisition of
Life Skills through Christian Religious
Education in Ndhiwa Sub-County, Kenya
Daniel Omondi Onyango
PhD Student of Pedagogy
Maseno University, Kenya

Abstract:- Christian Religious Education (CRE) is a positive behaviour depends upon the depth of life skills
carrier subject of Life Skills content in Kenyan acquired by the individual (Subasree, Nair & Ranjan,
Secondary School Curriculum. The purpose of this 2014). Secondary students in Kenya are provided with Life
study was to establish the effect of Role Play Teaching Skills (LS) training to foster good critical thinking skills,
Technique ( RP) on secondary school students’ interpersonal relationships develop a sense of self-respect
acquisition of life skills through Religious Education in and respect for others and contribute positively to the
Ndhiwa Sub- County, Kenya. The study adopted a transformation of self and society as a whole Kenya
Quasi Experimental Research Design involving Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD, 2006). Xaxx
Solomon Four Non – Equivalent Group Design. The (2014) asserts that people with solid sense of life skills are
population of the study was all Form Four CRE less easily coerced by others particularly where peers
students in public co- educational day secondary pressure is intense, hence, the need for life skills education.
schools. Purposive sampling technique was used to In Kenya, students are trained to acquire life skills through
select 169 students and simple random sampling was carrier subjects like Christian Religious Education in
used to determine four schools with similar secondary schools.
characteristics to participate in the study. RE students’
Life Skills Test was used to generate data. CRE teachers  Role Play as a Teaching Technique
were provided with a RP guide for teaching the According to Webster's New World College
experimental groups the selected CRE topic. The Dictionary, (2014) role play is described as a way of acting
reliability of the tool was estimated by use of Kuder of a specified part of a person or a character as a way of
Richardson’s Formula and the reliability coefficient was therapy or psychotherapy. In this thesis the intention of the
.78. Data was analyzed with SPS. The research question use of role play is not far fetch from the dictionary
was tested at α= .05 using a t- test. The study results definition. In the use of role play, students are expected to
indicated that RP positively affects secondary school act out a part of a story or a certain scenario, usually based
students’ acquisition of life skills. The t- test results on the real-life issue. This is attested by Altun (2015) who
indicated that the difference between the mean gains defined role play as a method or strategy in which students
was statistically significant at .05 in favour of the are expected to act out a specific role through saying, doing
experimental group. The study concluded that there is a and sharing. Through the process of role play, the students
significant relationship between the life skills gain competence in the life skills characteristics such an
acquisition of students taught CRE using RP and those enthusiasm, self-confidence, empathy and critical thinking
taught using the traditional methods. Teachers need to Alabsi (2016).
use RP to enhance their life skills pedagogical
approaches so as to attain the intended objectives of Mwaka, Nabwire and Musamas (2014) aver that role
learning CRE. play is a heuristic/ constructivist teaching technique which
involves indirect instruction where the teacher facilitates
Keywords:- Acquisition, Role Play, Christian Religious learning by posing questions, guiding, indicating sources of
Education, Life Skills, Traditional Method. information, and sharing of ideas, problems and solutions.
Further, it encourages learners to display elements of
I. INTRODUCTION scientific reasoning such as recognition of the problem,
formulation of the hypothesis, construction of mental
Life skills are set of human skills acquired via models and reaching possible conclusions (Otewa, 2015).
teaching or direct experiences that are used to handle Randall and Cox (2015) assert that role play not only
problems and questions encountered in daily life (Nivedita provides a variation in teaching techniques but also allows
& Singh, 2016). They are positive behaviours that a more student centered approach to learning. Whilst in the
encompass a mixture of knowledge, behaviour, attitudes orthodox method only the bold students manage to raise
and values and designate the possession of certain skills questions, in a role play all students are actively involved.
and know how to do something positively. The strength of

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Volume 5, Issue 2, February – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
By getting students to play roles, they come to feel competency. Cases of students’ bullying others, theft cases,
issues, experience tension and conflict and enter into strikes, students’ fights dominate the learning institutions
bargaining and cooperation. As a means of increasing despite the teaching of religious education which is viewed
students’ participation, role play can stimulate interest in as a carrier subject to life skills. Oyaro (2009) adds that
the subject and encourage students to continue reading. Kenyan reform institutions are full of the students who
Role play is a very well-known teaching method that helps should belong to secondary schools rather than
students to become familiar with their natural environment penitentiary. Peace Net- Kenya (2007) reported that
where society dwells. This is because role play that is students in Ndhiwa Sub- County were being used by the
introduced at the beginning of learning can prepare learners politicians to disrupt meetings organized by the leaders.
to deal with situations that they would come across in their
future endeavours (Sullivan & Clarke, 2013). Put together Teachers are the implementers of the Life Skills (LS)
with the objectives of learning life skills, role play curriculum. Their teaching strategies towards the life skill
facilitates life skills enhancement among the learners. objectives affect the learner LS acquisition. Role play
allows teachers to make their teaching engaging, active,
 Religious Education and Life Skills real, and student – centered to achieve their teaching and
Debate on the place and purpose of Religious learning goals. CRE has not adequately achieved its
Education (RE) was vigorously pursued in Britain in the intended objectives (Makewa & Ngussa, 2018; Kowino,
19th century and even generated a lot of research work 2012). Failure of CRE to achieve its objectives may
(Lord & Barley, 1973). For more than half a century after perhaps be attributed to teachers’ instructional techniques.
1870 Education Act, the main question remained to be how This study investigated the influence of Role Play teaching
RE was to be offered in the country’s schools. By 1944, technique on Secondary school students’ acquisition of life
school curriculum in Britain was conceived as two fold- skills through RE curriculum.
secular instruction and religious instruction. Distinction
was made between evangelization and education, as the II. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
former was affecting religious teaching in the country’s
schools.  Research Design
The study involved a Quasi-experimental research
Religious education has been an important subject of design using the Solomon Four Non-Equivalent Control
study in USA because of its role in equipping learners with Group Design (Gall, Borg & Gall, 2003) .The design was
LS (Eric, 1994). It was first conceived as Comparative preferred because the classes involved in the study
Religion or Science of Religion in the early years of its remained intact , this was to avoid disrupting the school
inception as a discipline in the 1950s. Hull (1982) notes schedule (Coolican, 1999; Wachanga, 2002). It assesses the
that by the second half of the 20th century the study of plausibility of pre-test sensitization effects, that is,
religion had become a prominent and important field of whatever the mere act of taking pre-test influences scores
academic inquiry. This made several state agencies and on subsequent test administration (Clark & Elen, 2006). It
local school districts to create mandates and guidelines also ensures that administration of pre-test to two groups
regarding the teaching of religion (Eric, 1994).For instance, and post-test to all four groups (Gall, Borg & Gall, 1996;
California were among the first to publish the handbook on Wachanga, 2002 & Mwangi, 2007). The independent
life skills, civic education and teaching about religion. The variable was the RP teaching technique while student’s
National Council for Social Studies gave a statement on its acquisition of life skills was the dependent variable with
position about religion that stated that knowledge about teachers being intervening variables. The design is
religion was not only a characteristic of an educated person, structurally represented as shown in Table 1.
but it was also necessary for understanding and living in a
world of diversity (Eric, 1994). Group Pre-test Treatment Post- test
E1 O1 X O2
The Kenyan secondary Religious Education syllabus,
Kenya Institute of Education ( [KIE], 2002) provides the E2 - X O5
following as the objectives of teaching CRE: acquire social, C1 O3 - O4
spiritual and moral insights to think critically; and to make C2 - - O6
appropriate decisions in rapidly changing society, Table 1:- Quasi – experimental, Pretest- Postest, Non-
appreciate and respect their own; and other peoples’ randomized Control Group Design
culture, acquire the basic principles of Christian living; and
develop a sense of self-respect and respect for others,  Population and Sampling Techniques
promote international consciousness through the The population of the study consisted of all 1850 form
understanding of universal brotherhood and sisterhood; and four CRE students. Purposive sampling was used to select
contribute positively to the transformation of self and four (4) co-educational schools from the four main
society as a whole. administrative units of the study area. A random sample of
169 students was selected for the study.
However, (Bowen & Karanja, 2012) contend that the
Kenyan learning institutions have been plagued with
students’ characters that does not indicate life skills

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Volume 5, Issue 2, February – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
 Research Instrument Gall, 2003). The reliability coefficient was estimated at
The research instrument developed and used for the 0.78 which was deemed reliable given that its coefficient
study was CRE Students Life Skills Test (CRESLST). It was above the recommended 0.7 threshold (Fraenkel &
consisted of three parts; preliminary information of the Wallen, 2000)
respondents, multiple choice questions and defining issue
life skills test. The CRESLST multiple choice questions III. RESULTS AND FINDINGS
and defining issue life skills test were of standard
objectives adapted from past question papers of Kenya The research question was:
National Examinations Council. The test was used both as a What is the difference in life skills acquisition between
pre-test and a post-test. students taught CRE using RP and those taught using the
traditional methods?
 Validity and Reliability of Research Instrument
Validity is the degree to which results obtained
from the analysis of data actually represents the
phenomenon under study (Mugenda & Mugenda, 2003).
The test was examined for both content and face validity.
The validation was done by two CRE teachers and a team
of experts at Maseno University in the department of Table 2:- Showing Comparison of Students’ Life Skills
Educational Communication, Technology and Curriculum Pre- test Mean Scores by Gender Categorization
Studies. The opinions of the experts were used to improve
the instrument before its use in the actual study. Further, it The results in Table 2 indicate that the students life
was piloted for reliability. skills achievement mean score (M= 5.79, SD= 2.52) of C1
was higher than that of (M= 5.61, SD= 2.28) of E 1. The
This was to ensure that it yields consistent results or difference between the two means was however not
data repeatedly (Gall, Gall & Borg, 2003). The KR21 statistically significant at .05 level (t (81) = 4.906, p>. 05).
formula was used to estimate the reliability coefficient of This means that the two groups, C1 and E1 were similar
the tool. KR21 was deemed appropriate since the test was before commencement of the study.
administered once and its data was continuous (Borg &

Table 3:- Students Life Skills Post- test Mean Scores and their Standard Deviations

The mean scores of the experimental groups E1 (M= The ANOVA test results show that the difference in
11.41, SD= 3.73) and E2 (M= 10.59, SD = 1.92) were mean scores among the four groups E1, E2, C1 and C2 was
higher than those of the control groups C1 (M= 8.20, SD = statistically significant at the .05 level in favour of the
2.89) and C2 (M= 7.49, SD= 2.22). experimental groups, F (3, 160) = 18.950, p<.05.The results
of ANOVA test only show differences among a group of
The results suggest that students exposed to RP more than three variables, it does not reveal where the
perform better than their counterparts taught using differences are. Therefore, there was need to conduct
traditional teaching approaches. The ANOVA test was further analysis to reveal where the differences were. The
conducted to establish whether the difference among the Least Significant Difference (LSD) test was conducted to
mean sores of E1, E2, C1 and C2 was significant. reveal where the differences were

 ANOVA

Table 5:- LSD Multiple Comparison of Life Skills Post-

test Mean Scores by Learning Approach
Table 4:- Comparison of Life Skills Post-test Mean Scores
by Learning Technique

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Volume 5, Issue 2, February – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
The multiple comparison results reveal that there were The t-test was used to establish whether the two mean
significant differences between pair groups E1-C1 (p<.05), gains were statistically significant as presented in Table 8.
E1-C2 (p<.05), E2-C1 (p<.05) and E2-C2 (p<.05).
However the differences between E1-E2 (p .05) and C1- Group N Mean SD df t- ρ-
C2 (p .05) were not statistically significant. Generally the Gain value value
experimental groups outperformed the control groups. E1 40 5.80 3.15 79 4.104 .000*
Further analysis was conducted by comparing the mean C1 41 2.54 3.95
scores of the control (C1 and C2 combined) and *Significant at .05
experimental (E1 and E2 combined) groups using the t-test Table 8:- Difference in Mean Gain on Life Skills Test
to confirm the results of the ANOVA test. The comparison between E1 and C2
was conducted using the t-test.
The t-test results show that the difference between the
mean gains of E1 (M = 5.80, SD = 3.15) and C1 (M =2.54,
SD 3.95) was statistically significant at the .05 level, in
favour of the experimental group (t (91) = 7.606, p<.05).
The experimental group thus had a higher improvement in
learning outcomes as measures by the mean gain. That
Table 6:- Showing Comparison of the Students’ Life Skills high improvement in the experimental group is attributed to
Post- test Mean Scores between the Experimental and the treatment. The results of life skill post-test analysis
Control Groups revealed that the difference among the means scores of
groups C1, E1, C2 and E2 were statistically significant in
The test results reveal that the mean (M =11.00, SD = favour of the experimental groups. On the basis of these
2.99) of the experimental group was higher than that (M results, the research hypothesis which stated that the
=7.83, SD = 2.57) of the control group. The results further difference between the life skills of students taught using
reveal that the difference between the means of the two RP is not statistically different from those taught using
groups was statistically significant at the .05 level, in traditional strategies was rejected.
favour of the experimental group (t (162) = 9.306, p<.05).
IV. DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
 Gain analysis - groups C1 and E1
Gain analysis examines the achievement levels of E1 As revealed by the mean scores between the
and C1 before and after the programme and tries to explain experimental groups and their SD, RP teaching techniques
improvements in learning outcomes as measured by the improves the students’ acquisition of life skills. This was in
mean scores. agreement with the findings of studies by (Ilori, 2001;
Njoku, 2015) that effective use of learner-centred teaching
Stage Scale Group approaches helps in attaining religious education learning
E1 n = C1 n = 43 outcomes among secondary school students. Ilori (2001)
40 emphasized the need for RE teachers to always pay
Pre-test Mean 5.61 5.79 attention to the teaching approaches that caters for the
Standard 2.28 2.52 needs of the students as a factor in attaining CRE learning
Deviation outcomes. RP technique presupposes that students learn
Post -test Mean 11.41 8.20 faster through experience. When students are exposed to
Standard 3.73 2.89 making their own findings, (Njoku, 2015) contend that they
Deviation gain knowledge faster, and as such knowledge is usually
Mean Gain 5.80 2.41 permanent.
Table 7:- Students’ Pre- test and Post- test Mean Scores,
Standard Deviations and Mean Gains by Learning The findings of this study, further, synchronized with
Approach the submission of Nelson (2002) that constructive approach
to teaching yields positive attainment of desired learning
The pre-test life skill mean (M =5.61, SD = 2.28) of outcomes. RP therefore supports the adage that says
E1 and that (M = 5.79, SD = 2.52) of C1 were comparable experience is the best teacher hence life skills knowledge
before the commencement of the programme. After the can best be achieved from learners’ experience. RP appeals
treatment, the mean (M = 11.41, SD = 3.73) of E1 was to the students’ conscience on the need to learn. This agrees
higher than that (M = 8.20, SD = 2.89) of C1. The result with Njoku (2012) that effective use of teaching strategies
also reveal that the mean gain of E1 (M =5.80) was higher helps the teacher to develop ethical and responsible
that (M = 2.41). This means that improvement in learning students by encouraging them to acquire life skills required
outcomes of the experimental group E1 was higher than to operate in the society. RP not only exposes the students
that of the control group C1. on the need to be diligent with their study but also help
teachers to advocate for conducive environment that would
enable effective learning to take place.

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Volume 5, Issue 2, February – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
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