Effect of Biology Teachers Domain-Specific Beliefs about the Subject on the Integration of Technology in Instruction in Secondary Schools in Kenya

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has a key role to perform in aiding education deliver its mandate of transforming Kenya into an industrialized nation as envisaged in the Kenya vision 2030. It is therefore essential that it is integrated into the teaching of all subjects in the school curriculum, biology inclusive. Its application in teaching contributes to effectiveness in delivery of the content. However, this is met with many challenges as many teachers do not seem to prioritize the use of technology in biology teaching and instruction based on the teachers beliefs about the description of the subject and how it should be taught. The beliefs about biology can be categorized into three distinct groups: The Scientific-Innovative, Pedagogical-Innovative, and Scientific-Conventional types. The purpose of this research was to examine the domain-specific beliefs held by the teachers of biology about the nature of the subject and its instruction and the effect of these beliefs on the integration of ICT in instruction in secondary schools in Kenya. The study was conducted in secondary schools located in Bungoma County. The objective of the study was to determine the effect of the three belief categories on the frequency of use of technology. The study was based on the social constructivist learning theory as proposed by Lev Vygotsky. The study adopted descriptive survey design. The study targeted secondary school biology teachers who have received professional training. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were applied to ensure equal representation of the schools (sub-county, county, extra county and national schools), teachers. Data was collected using questionnaires, observation schedules, and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive statistics included means, frequencies and percentages. The data is presented in the form of tables, graphs and pie charts. The study made known the effect of the domain-specific beliefs of biology teachers on the integration of ICT in biology instruction in secondary schools in Kenya. This may pave the way for interventions to facilitate proper integration and meaningful instruction which will lead to acquisition of the pertinent knowledge, skills, attitudes, and competence for further training.