Challenges and Coping Mechanisms of Career Mothers Teaching In Selected Senior High Schools in the New Juaben Municipality of Ghana (Published)

Over the years, women’s position has changed remarkably from just a home keeper and baby maker and they are seen in various sectors actively engaged in work outside the home. Despite these great strides, women seem to face many challenges, including discrimination and gender stereotypes. This study explored the challenges and coping mechanisms of career mothers teaching in selected senior high school in the New Juaben Municipality. The study adopted the qualitative research approach and used a case study design to explore the experiences of these career mothers. The study population consisted of career mothers teaching in senior high schools in the New Juaben Municipality. Purposive sampling technique was adopted to select twenty participants for the study. A semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect data from the participants. The data was analysed using thematic approach. The study revealed that career mothers teaching in senior high schools faces challenges associated with managing the roles they perform at their workplace and the performance of family responsibilities. They indicated that they cope with conflicting role demands by structuring and planning their day-to-day activities through prioritization in term of their responsibilities. It was also revealed that career mothers needed support from their married partners, family members, and friends in their bid to cope with their conflicting roles. It is recommended that Ministry of Education through Ghana Education Service should develop policies that are gender sensitive to enable career mothers achieve their plights of balancing their work and family life effectively. Such policies may include job breaks, work sharing, flexible working plans and childcare support

Keywords: Challenges, Ghana, Senior High School, career mothers, coping mechanisms

Determinants of Teacher Motivation and Job Performance at Senior High Schools in Greater Accra Region, Ghana (Published)

This study aimed to investigate the factors affecting teacher motivation and job performance/productivity at senior high schools in the Greater Accra region, Ghana. The study is quantitative in nature and survey approach was employed to gather data from 676 respondents out of sample size of 700. Descriptive statistical test as well as Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmation Factor Analysis were used to analyze the data obtained from the respondents. In addition, tools such as mean, standard deviation, frequency and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) were employed. The study found that motivations of teachers are low due to the lack of such variables as medical allowance, accommodation allowance, pension scheme, career advancement, recognition and low level of salary compare to their colleagues with the same qualifications in other government’s institutions and this is impacting negatively on their job performance. It was suggested by the teachers that major paradigm shift in Ghana education policies in connection to factors such as school governance, remuneration, safety and security, as well as assessments and evaluations needed to be revised for an improved performance.

Keywords: Determinants, Ghana, Job Performance, Motivation, Senior High Schools, Teacher

Evaluating the Impact of Counseling Services in Senior High Schools in Ghana: The Case Of Okere District. (Published)

Lately, it is common to observe violence and other deviant behaviors among senior high schools. This many have attributed it to poor implementation of guidance and counseling services rendered in most SHS in the country and the Okere District. The primary research purpose was to assess the importance of guidance and counseling units in some selected Senior High Schools in the Okere District. The nature of the research was descriptive, with the questionnaire as the primary data collection instrument. The research employed simple random sampling and purposive sampling methods to select students and teachers, respectively. Statistical tools employed were mean, charts, percentages, crosstabulation, and ANOVA. The findings revealed that most Senior High Schools in the District render orientation service. The findings also revealed that lack of training physical facilities, inadequate funds, missing pertinent reference materials, few guidance and counseling sessions, and no involvement of peer counselors impede the implementation of guidance and counseling units in the District. Finally, the findings also revealed guidance and counseling services rendered in the schools in the District affect students’ academic performance. Therefore, it is recommended that schools in the District be assisted in improving their guidance and counseling units since it will affect students’ academic performance when well carried out.

Keywords: Ghana, Guidance, Okere district, counseling services senior high schools

Fifty Nine Years of Formal Music Education in Ghanaian Primary Schools (Published)

Music has played a very significant role in educating Ghanaian primary school children. From the colonial era till 1959, there were no curriculum document that guided teaching and learning of the art. What to teach and what to learn were left largely to the initiative and enthusiasm of individual teachers. The first ever syllabus for teaching the subject was published in 1959 by the Ghana Ministry of Education. Since then the music curriculum has gone through series of reviews and reforms, the last being the publication and implementation of the Creative Arts curriculum for primary schools in 2007. The aim of this paper is to present a brief chronology of fifty nine (59) years of implementation of formal music education in Ghanaian primary schools from 1959 to 2018.

Keywords: Curriculum Review, Formal Music Education, Ghana, Primary School

Choosing Performing Arts Pedagogy Courses: Pre-Service Generalist Teachers Motivation (Published)

Performing Arts pedagogy courses have not been the choice of pre-service generalist teachers in Wesley College of Education in the city of Kumasi, Ghana between 2010/2011 and 2016/2017 academic years. At the beginning of the 2017/2018 academic year, six students selected the course as their elective for study. This study explores the motivation behind these pre-service teachers selecting the Performing Arts pedagogy courses for study. Prior engagement in the performing arts, expectation of ability to teach, and achieving good examination results emerged as the main themes from the analysis of qualitative semi-structured interview data. Findings suggest that there is a relationship between prior experiences in the performing arts and motivation to continue engagements in the arts. Further research with pre-service teachers to identify their needs, interests, abilities and background experiences in the performing arts will help teacher educators to train students to be effective practitioners in their future classrooms.

Keywords: Colleges Of Education, Ghana, Motivation, Pedagogy, Performing Arts, Pre-service Generalist Teachers

Gender Metamorphoses in the Use of ICT Tools: A Case Study at Offinso College of Education (Published)

The role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education cannot be overemphasized, hence teachers as agents of education are expected to acquire the essential skills to help train the 21^st century child to survive in the current competitive and technologically driven world. The study aimed at the impact of ICT on Male and Female student-teachers in Colleges of Education in Ghana. The Mixed research design which takes into consideration the various factors that influence ICT access and usage in Colleges of Education was used. It outlines the various factors that militate against successful integration of ICT tools in teaching and learning. The extent to which student-teachers are embracing technology in their learning have been analysed. The study used questionnaire and participatory observation of classroom activities to collect data from hundred and forty (140) Student-teachers at Offinso College of Education. The findings show no significant difference in access and usage of ICT tools among male and female student-teachers. The study revealed lack of technical support and maintenance as a significant impediment to the development of ICT in the College of education. However, there was no significant difference in access and use of ICT tool since student-teachers share similar backgrounds.

Keywords: Education, Gender, Ghana, ICT, ICT tools, Learning, Student Teachers, Teaching, Technology

Sources and Effects of Stress on Work Performance, and Coping Strategies among Nurses at University of Cape Coast Hospital, Cape Coast, Ghana (Published)

Stress is part of our everyday life and affects all aspects of our activities. In professions, where encountering hundreds of people is a routine could be very stressful. This is the nature of the nursing profession, with its attendant effects on the physical and psychological wellbeing of the nurse. This study set out to find the sources and effects of stress on work performance among nurses at the University of Cape Coast Hospital, and the coping strategies they adopt. Questionnaire was used to solicit data from the respondents. Using the multi-stage sampling technique, fifty nine nurses were sampled for the study. Three research questions and three hypotheses were formulated, and answered and tested respectively. Independent t-tests, Analysis of Variance, and means were used in analyzing the data collected. No statistically significant differences were found between the ages of nurses and the type of stress experienced, by gender with respect to how they coping strategies toward stress, and among the various ranks of nurses and the effect of stress on their performance. It was concluded that, nurses in the University of Cape Coast Hospital were aware of the sources of stress among nurses, aware of the effects of stress on their performance, and had devised their strategies for coping with stress.It was therefore recommended that management of the Directorate of University Health Services (UCC) organizes seminars, workshops, forum, among others on incidence of stress and stress management strategies for the nurses. This would help the nurses to be abreast with stress coping strategies thereby alleviating stress on them. It was also recommended that counsellors were brought on to put in techniques that would assist nurses who are going through stressful conditions, which are likely to affect their performance on the work.

 

Keywords: Cape Coast, Coast Hospital, Coping, Ghana, Nurses University of Cape, Sources and Effects, Strategies., Stress, Work Performance

Pre-Service Teachers’ Use of Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Teaching and Learning Mathematics at Basic Seven in Akatsi District, Ghana (Published)

 

The purpose of the study is to explore how pre-service teachers’ use   their Pedagogical Content Knowledge (teachers’ knowledge of content and students’ thinking process) to identify and diagnose students’ misconceptions in comparing, adding, multiplying and dividing fractions. Pre-service teachers were expected to identify students’ misconceptions, give reasons of students’ misconceptions, and ask specific questions to diagnose students’ thinking processes that lead to the misconceptions. A total of 72 pre-service teachers teaching Mathematics were purposively selected out of 320 students from the schools of practice. Descriptive survey design was used for the study. Data   collected were analyzed using frequencies, percentages and means. The study revealed that about 60% of the pre-service teachers could identify the students’ misconceptions but only 17% of them could articulate the reasons for students’ misconceptions clearly. Also about 58% of the   pre-service teachers asked probing questions instead of   specific questions to diagnose students’ misconceptions and only about 14% of them asked specific questions. It was concluded that most of the pre-service teachers were   able to identify students’ misconception but could not give   reasons for the students’ misconceptions. In addition, majority of the pre-service teachers could not ask specific questions to diagnose students’ misconceptions. It was recommended that teacher training institutions   integrate pedagogical content knowledge in to the curriculum to equip pre-service teachers with skills that would enable them to analyze students’ thinking processes.

Keywords: Akatsi District, Ghana, Knowledge, Mathematics, Pedagogical Content, Pre-Service, Teaching and Learning

Relationship between Professional Development of Head Teachers and Supervision Of Instruction in Ghanaian Basic Schools (Published)

While a number of training programmes are organized to strengthen the supervisory roles of headteachers in Ghanaian basic schools, research suggests that the quality of instructional supervision remains poor. Employing quantitative research paradigm, this study sought to explore the relationship between professional development and supervision of instruction of headteachers in the basic schools of one educational district in Ghana. The study results showed that while engagement in both formal and informal professional development activities correlated with instructional supervision, only the engagement in informal professional development activities significantly predicted supervision and evaluation of instruction. This suggests that informal learning experiences appear to be valuable than formal professional development activities in the selected district. Educational authorities in Ghana therefore need to coordinate and strengthen the existing informal/on-the-job learning strategies in schools to facilitate the supervisory skills of headteachers.

Keywords: Formal Learning, Ghana, Informal Learning, Professional Development, Supervision of Instruction

Plagiarism Is A Crime: Towards Academic Integrity in Higher Educational Institutions in Ghana (Published)

Admittedly, students’ academic plagiarism comes in different forms. Surprisingly, little is known   about the most common form of student’s plagiarism due to inadequate research. This study was aimed to fill this knowledge gap by empirically examined the most common forms of students’ academic plagiarism in the Wa municipality of Ghana. The choice of the study sitting was influenced by the increasing educational activities in the area. The population of the study comprised of all tertiary students in the municipality. The positivist (quantitative) research design was deployed. Convenience sampling technique was used to select 200 respondents. Data for the study were elicited from both primary and secondary sources. Questionnaires were the main interment used in gathering primary data. The constructs for the questionnaires were adopted from Sentleng and King (2012) which was modified to address the objectives of the study. The data were analyzed with the aid of Predictive Analytics Software (PASW). The results were presented using Means (M), Standard Deviations (SD), Relative Important Index (RII) and Chi-square Test. The study revealed the most frequent forms of students plagiarism as follows: Invented or altered data (M=4.16, SD= 0.9), Writing an assignment for your friend (M=4.10, SD=0.9),Copy a text without acknowledgement (M=4.05, SD=1.3), Submitted someone’s work without their permission (M=3.41, SD=1.4), Paraphrased without acknowledging the source (M=2.41, SD=1.7), Summarizing a text without acknowledgement (M=2.73, SD=1.4).Chi-square Test revealed that there is a significant difference between Gender and age of students (χ2 -value = 17.98, df =3, p-value<0.05). Moreover, there is significant difference between religion and age (χ² -value = 6.55, df =3, p-value=0.05). It is concluded that the most common forms of plagiarism among the students were paraphrased without acknowledging the source (Patchworks), Copy a text without acknowledgement, Invented or altered data (Sham),imitating friends work (Pastiches) and. Training on academic writings need to be intensified.

Keywords: Forms, Ghana, Plagiarism, Prevalence, Students, Wa-municipality