This study was planned to increase understanding of job satisfaction among faculty in middle size universities. The problem was job satisfaction and its association with selected demographic characteristics of faculty at Kenyatta University, second largest university in Nairobi. There was a response rate of 52.6 percent. All of the 300 faculty members with the rank of professor, associate professor, assistant professor, lecturer and teaching fellow participated in this research. Two instruments were used to collect data from the participating faculty. The first instrument was a demographic data sheet that solicited personal data from faculty. The second instrument was a standardized six dimensional survey instrument, the Job Descriptive Index (JDI). Both survey instruments were handed out in an envelope to all faculty by the researcher. The findings showed that most faculty were satisfied with their job in areas of co-workers and job in general. They seemed dissatisfied with the area of opportunities for promotion. The findings further demonstrated that most faculty were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with their present work, present pay, and supervision. Analysis of variance demonstrated that the selected demographic variables of age, professional rank, and nationality were associated with job satisfaction. Scheffé's Multiple Comparison test and Newman-Keuls procedure were used to analyze differences in satisfaction among groups. The results showed that professors and lecturers were significantly more satisfied with their coworkers than were the assistant professors. Faculty members' gender, marital status, years of experience, tenure status, academic degree and area of interest did not influence job satisfaction. It is recommended that future research to determine an appropriate system of promotions structure and faculty growth and development be initiated.

The low grades that students score in some statistical units in Kenyan universities is of great concern and has evoked research interest in the teaching of some of the units and the students’ learning of the statistical content. The aim of the study was to investigate the difficulties undergraduate students experience in the learning of bivariate normal distribution in a Kenyan university. The research also aimed to answer the following research questions on the difficulties undergraduate students encounter in the learning of bivariate normal distribution. The first research question was based on the reasons why students find learning of bivariate normal distribution difficult and the second research question was to find the reasons why students experience such difficulties in learning bivariate normal distribution. The target population for this study included lecturers teaching statistics in the university, and second- and third- year students enrolled or who have previously completed the probability and statistics III unit, where the bivariate normal distribution content is covered. In selecting students for the study, the simple random sampling technique was employed while convenient sampling was used to select lecturers who participated in the study. A mixed methods design was adopted for this study where both quantitative and qualitative data was collected. A total of 175 students and six lecturers participated in this research study. All students who participated in the study did a bivariate normal distribution test (Appendix 1) designed by the researcher and then filled in a questionnaire (Appendix 2). The lecturers who participated in the study filled in an open-ended questionnaire (Appendix 3). The results showed that undergraduate students have difficulties in learning bivariate normal distribution. This is because most of them could neither state the bivariate normal distribution nor solve any of the application questions on the content. The students find it difficult to learn and comprehend the bivariate normal distribution equation with its many parameters and constants of the two random independent variables. The results also showed that students could not state the normal distribution equation nor could they solve questions on the normal distribution, which forms the foundational knowledge required for effective learning of the bivariate normal distribution content. ii Based on the results, the study recommended that emphasis should be placed on the basic and foundational knowledge of the normal distribution content and its applications before teaching bivariate normal distribution in probability and statistics III. In addition, it is recommended that all students should be involved in the learning of basic content to enable them to understand all parameters and constants in the equations and their applications. The study also recommends that lecturers revise the foundational knowledge and content related to the bivariate normal distribution before introducing and teaching the bivariate normal distribution content. This study also recommends that the university should consider a change of curriculum by teaching the bivariate normal distribution, as an introductory course to the unit under the multivariate distributions in statistics, in third year of the students’ studies. ; ; / Mathematics Education / M. Sc. (Mathematics Education)