Assessment of the Quality of Creative Writing Activities in Upper Primary Textbooks and Teachers’ Guides in Kenya

The effectiveness of teaching and learning of English writing skills largely depends on the quality of learning materials,
key among them being textbooks. Textbooks make learning more enjoyable and interesting to learners as they provide
practical experience which goes a long way in stimulating self-activity and creativity among learners. They provide
critical inputs for classroom lessons through various activities, readings and explanations which are used to develop
competence in Creative Writing (CW). In Kenyan primary schools, the government has endeavored to achieve a 1:1
learner-textbook ratio to enhance learning and improve academic performance. However, the performance of CW skills
is still unsatisfactory. Furthermore, many studies conducted in Kenya with regard to teaching and learning materials
have focused on the importance and availability of textbooks; but the quality of CW activities in these textbooks, which
facilitate the learning and acquisition of CW skills, has not been looked into. Moreover, the originality, fluency and
creative demands of CW are problematic to upper primary learners in Vihiga County as reflected in the persistent
underperformance in CW in the English subject with more than 60% of the learners scoring below the pass mark pegged
at 20 marks out of the total 40 marks. Therefore, the quality of the CW writing activities has to nurture creativity and be
graduated in complexity to develop higher order skills like CW. The foregoing assertions prompted the researcher to
assess the quality of CW activities in the textbooks and teachers’ guides used in CW pedagogy in Vihiga County, Kenya.
The study employed a qualitative exploratory research design and was guided by Archer’s theory of reflexivity which
views writing as internal and external conversations and addresses the concerns of the individual and the social
structures or ‘expected’ ways of acting in a particular context. Data collection tools were Document Analysis Guide
(DAG)and Interview Schedule whose validity and reliability were tested through triangulation and thick description.
Class 6, 7 and 8 New Primary English Textbooks and Teachers Guides were assessed to establish the quality of CW
activities therein and 30 Class 6, 7 and 8 teachers of English interviewed. Data from DAG was analyzed using content
analysis while data from Interview was analyzed thematically through transcription, coding and identification of
themes. The study revealed low quality and inadequate CW activities in textbooks and Teachers’ Guides that can develop
CW effectively. The study recommended reviewing CW activities in pupils’ and teachers’ books, in-servicing of teachers on
CW instruction and developing CW reference materials besides the textbooks and Teachers Guides.