International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue II, February 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186

The Relationship Between Students’ Career Aspirations and their Academic Performance among Secondary School Students in Bungoma South Sub-County, Kenya.

Kevin Longino Mbehero, Prof. Wamocha Joseph Nasong’o and Dr. Mukonyi Wanjala Phillip
Department of Educational Foundation, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Kenya.

Abstract:
The launch of the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) in Kenya was met with mixed reaction. Some Scholars were apprehensive of the competencies envisaged in the curriculum as already entrenched in the 8:4:4 curriculum. The purpose of this paper as such was to analyze core-competencies of Competency-based curriculum in the light of Deweyan Pragmatism. The study was guided by three objectives: To Examine Deweyan Pragmatic ideas relevant to CBC education, to analyze core-competencies of Competency-based curriculum (CBC) in the light of Deweyan pragmatism and to evaluate the implications of Deweyan Pragmatic ideas on Core- competencies of CBC. The findings of this study will contribute to the ongoing discourse on Kenya’s CBC by clarifying the philosophical basis of the CBC competencies significantly ground the influence of Deweyan pragmatic on Kenya’s CBC. . Information used in this study was extracted from primary and secondary written sources. Literature informing this study was purposively selected and Document analysis was used to extract information. Critical and Speculative methods were used to analyze information extracted. It was found that experience is the key underlying idea in Deweyan pragmatism. The version of experience propounded by Dewey is both open ended and futuristic Dewey thus views experience as problematized, practical, observational and cognitive procedure of knowing that lead to active unfolding of concrete competencies from psychological and scientific perspectives It was also found that the underlying ideas in the core competencies of CBC have the potency to bring out humans who are experiential and highly efficacious with the will to power to do tasks competently. This implies that, Kenya can navigate its development virility through competent and experiential education speculated in CBC. Due to problematized nature of CBC learning procedure, the researcher recommends the introduction of philosophy and ethics as a subject at the basic level of education to boost learners’ critical thinking and creative skills as the pedestal for effecting other competencies envisioned in Basic Education Curriculum Framework .
Key Words: Pragmatism, Core-competencies, Competency Based Curriculum (CBC)

Introduction
John Dewey (1859-1952) was an American philosopher, educator and a critical exponent of pragmatism. Pragmatism is derived from English transliteration of the Greek word πραγμα (pronounced pragma) and whose meaning is “action”. Action is reminiscent of practice and practical outcome (Ozmon & Craver, 1981). Pragmatism therefore is a philosophical theory which holds that useful, workable and applicable ideas are born out of experience (Dewey, 1948 cited in Akinpelu, 1981). In the 21st century, society’s vision and needs have been underpinned to human competency (Sullivan, 2004). Here, competency means capability of a human person to do something with ease (Moomaw, 1975). It constitutes the triple H sequential model of “What, How and Why. In education, ‘Knowing What?’ refers to subject matter, ‘How can learners know that they know?’ refers to instruction and learning)? And the question ‘Why should they know what they know?’ indicates expected learning outcomes)

What is the relevance and significance of what they know to them as individuals and to the society? From Darwinian evolutionary biology, humans are reasoning beings; their thinking evolves from one experience to another. According to Deweyan pragmatism, there is no end to experience. Thus, through experience, humans can organize reality, knowledge and values (Beyer, 1995).