Abstract:
From 1951 when Dr Kwame Nkrumah embarked on expansion of the education system in
the then Gold Coast to the present, there have been several initiatives aimed at developing
the education system. The most prominent are; the Accelerated Development Plans for
Education (1951 and 1961), the New Structure and Content of Education Plan (1974), the
New Educational Reform Programme (NERP) (1987), and the Free Compulsory
Universal Basic Education (1996). These initiatives show that education policy makers
recognise the need for modification as and when the situation demands but not enough
has been done about teaching and learning. So far the most obvious teaching and learning
initiatives are the National Language Accelerated Programme (NALAP) introduced in
2009 and the Teacher-Community Assistance Initiative (TCAI) in 2011.
As a result of this observation, the study sought to ask; to what extent can storytelling be
used as an effective approach to teaching and learning in public basic schools?, to what extent can
stories be designed as a module for teaching Natural Science in Basic 3? And how can stories be
created from topics in public Basic 3 Natural Science Text Book? To answer these questions,
Sowa Din Memorial “2” Primary School was purposively selected to explore the
possibility of using stories as an instructional method. Interviews, complete observation,
participant observation and documents were used for this exploration. The study revealed
that using stories as a mode of instruction falls in line with the Ghana Education Service
teaching and learning initiative but the teachers had a challenge in creative teaching. A
days’ training workshop served as an in-service training for the teachers and a test of the
module revealed that when teachers are given specific skills to meet the needs of the
classroom they would deliver. To ensure that teachers employed variety teaching to
enhance learning, the study found that there should be reviews of course content at the
training colleges and mode of supervision of teachers.
