Corroborating Magnusson’s PCK Model for Teaching Genetics at The Ghanaian Senior High School Level (Published)
Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on survey data from 149 Senior High School biology teachers in Ghana to validate Magnusson’s framework of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in science teaching. The questionnaire aligned with Magnusson’s conceptualization of PCK, encompassing components like teaching orientations, knowledge of students’ understanding, instructional strategies, assessment, and science curriculum within genetics. The results affirmed the integrative model of PCK, indicating strong interactions among its components. While the transformative model also showed relevance, its imposition led to a notable decrease in goodness of fit. This underscores the applicability of Magnusson’s integrated PCK model for understanding Ghanaian SHS teachers’ PCK in genetics instruction. The findings emphasize the importance of integrated training in knowledge domains
Keywords: Assessment, Instructional Strategies, PCK, Pedagogical content knowledge, Teacher Knowledge, integrative PCK, teaching orientations, transformative PCK
Effect of Mathematics Method Course on Pre-Service Teachers’ knowledge of Content and Teaching Fractions (Published)
The study sought to examine the effects of mathematics teaching methods course on pre-service mathematics teachers’ knowledge of content of teaching mathematics. The data were collected from 120 level 300 pre-service mathematics teachers. Participants were given Fraction Knowledge Questionnaire to test their knowledge of content of teaching mathematics at the beginning and after method course. The purpose of the pre-test and post-test assessment was to measure the amount of change in the participants’ knowledge for mathematics teaching. The result of the study revealed pre-service teacher recorded gains in their knowledge of content and teaching fraction operations from content level to epistemic level. An eta squared statistic of 0.63 revealed a large effect size of mathematics teaching methods course on pre-service teachers’ knowledge of content and teaching fraction operations. Consequently, it was recommended that other studies be done in the other content domains of the basic mathematics in order to find the effect Mathematics Method course might have on those contents.
Keywords: Teacher Knowledge, content knowledge for teaching mathematics, mathematics teaching methods course, pre-service elementary mathematics teachers
The Role of Faculties of Education in the Preparation of Primary School Pre-Service Teachers for Inclusive Classrooms (Published)
Universities in South Africa are responsible for training primary school teachers. These teachers should be competent to teach learners with and without disabilities in the same classroom environments. With the exception of very few universities in South Africa, the majority offers courses that do not adequately prepare teachers for inclusive classrooms. This quantitative study was pegged on the literary debate and used the Modified Survey of Attitudes towards Inclusion of Learners with Special Needs to collect data from 149 primary school pre-service teachers. The findings revealed that pre-service teachers who took a module on Barriers to Learning have a good understanding of the teaching of learners with special needs, they possess appropriate skills to teach learners with and without disabilities in inclusive classrooms and are confident that they have inherent qualities and mental temperament to deal with special needs learners.
Keywords: Inclusive Education, Persons With Disabilities, Pre-Service Teachers, Special Needs Learners, Teacher Knowledge, Teaching Skills And Dispositions