Influence of Participatory Instructional Method on Pupils Performance in Science in Mbeere South Sub-County

In Kenya, and specifically to primary schools in Mbeere South, Performance in Science has showed persistent stagnation where the KCPE results over staggered years, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013 stagnated at around 50 % mark. Such a poor trend needs a systematic investigation. Therefore, this research proposed to assess the Influence of Participatory Instructional Method on Pupils Performance in Science in Mbeere South Sub-County. The study was based on the Constructivism and the Pedagogical content theories that both explain learning of science. Mixed research methodologies were used to conduct the study in which both qualitative and quantitative data was collected. The study adopted a concurrent triangulation research design that involved the concurrent, but separate, collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. The target population comprised of 1083 respondents comprised of 1080 Science teachers in primary schools within Mbeere South Sub-County, 2 quality assurance officers and 1 sub- county director of the teachers service commission. The sample size was 219 respondents which was arrived at through two stage geographic clustered sampling, simple random sampling and purposive sampling. To determine the sample size of teachers, 20 % was sampled guided by postulations from guided by Gay (1976) while the others were arrived at purposively. The research instruments were a structured questionnaire, an observation schedule and a key informant interview schedule guide. Descriptive and inferential data analysis was done on quantitative data by help of computer software, the Statistics Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) version 22, and presented in frequency tables and co-efficient correlation respectively while thematic analysis was done on qualitative data and presented in narrative forms. The study revealed Participatory instructional method has the highest influence on pupils performance in science. The study recommends that teachers should embrace learning experiences that promote pupils learning skills in science such as analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluation science knowledge. Government should hire more science teachers and increase funding for purchase of materials in order to boost the ability of schools to teach their pupils using participatory method. . Implementing recommendations of this study would help teachers and education policy makers improve performance in science subjects in the Sub-County.