Assessing Teachers’ Content Knowledge for Design Education in Basic Schools: An Exploratory Study in Kumasi Metropolis, Ghana (Published)
Design education in Ghana’s basic school system occurs within the Creative Arts and Design (CAD) curriculum that was introduced in 2020 as part of reforms in Junior High Schools (JHSs). To ascertain how the Design strand of CAD is understood, interpreted, and implemented by JHS teachers, we adopted the descriptive research design with observation and personal interviews to collect data from a purposive sample of seven JHS1-3 teachers of Design in five JHSs in three different municipalities within the Kumasi metropolis. Findings from the analysis of data collected revealed that five (71.4%) of the teachers had no education in any CAD discipline; all seven (100%) exhibited insufficient knowledge of the CAD curriculum, understanding of Design as a concept, process, product, and medium of creative expression that culminated in the inaccurate interpretation of Design in lessons to promote positive learning experiences and outcomes for the learners. To enhance the teachers’ content knowledge of Design, continuous professional development that focuses on theoretical and practical applications of Design is required.
Keywords: Content Knowledge, Design Education, Ghana, Junior High School, creative arts and design curriculum
Content Knowledge Of Social Studies Teachers In Senior High Schools In The Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis In The Western Region Of Ghana (Review Completed - Accepted)
The main objective of the study was to investigate SHS Social Studies teachers’ understanding of the content of what they teach to be able to achieve the objectives of the subject. To achieve this objective, interview guide, observation checklist and questionnaire were used to elicit the views of respondents. In all, 54 Social Studies teachers were involved in the study. The simple random, cluster and convenient sampling techniques were used to select the respondents for the study. Frequency counts and percentages were used as statistical tools for analysing the questionnaire data collected, and the data from the interview guide was transcribed, categorized, analysed and discussed on themes and subthemes that emerged. The findings revealed that majority of the teachers lack content knowledge of Social Studies and they were not teaching to develop attitude, skills, values and knowledge. Teachers were teaching the subject in as amalgamation of social sciences and are thus not making students to be reflective, concerned and participatory citizens. Based upon the findings, it was recommended largely that there should be more courses on Social Studies content mounted and studied in all teacher training institutions in the country to help teachers develop the needed content knowledge about the subject to enhance effective teaching
Keywords: Content, Content Knowledge, Content Knowledge Of Social Studies Teacher, Knowledge Of Social Studies