Dissertation (MA Education)The study aimed at developing and implementing a learner centered approach for teaching Kiswahili poems writing skills in O-level secondary education. Specifically the study aimed to design and develop exemplary learner-centered lessons and materials for improving the teaching of Kiswahili poems writing to O- level secondary schools; to pre-test the designed material in the real situation in a school; to undertake a formative evaluation of the learning process on the new designed lessons and materials after being tried out in the classroom; and to evaluate students’ and teacher’s perceptions on the effectiveness of the proposed learning process embedded in the designed lessons and materials. Documentary reviews, questionnaires, interviews, classroom observations and pre-and post-tests were used to collect data. Four classes from two different schools were involved, two classes for the control and two for the experimental classes. The control groups were trained in the traditional manner using mostly chalks and talks with numerous text book examples for practice. The experimental groups were trained using a SCL focus with emphasis on self assessment. Both groups were exposed to the Kiswahili topic of Poems Writing. Results of the field testing of the material have revealed that teachers could perform many of the steps suggested in the material, helped in classroom management and increased their PCK. Students were active, motivated, could do many activities suggested, and increased their Kiswahili poetry writing skills. It is recommended that Kiswahili teachers should put emphasize in the teaching of Kiswahili poems composition and more studies be conducted to encourage a better approach to build competence in this skill.