Department of Teacher Education

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    Teachers’ Perceived Causes of Poor Performance in Mathematics by Students in Basic Schools from Ningo Prampram, Ghana
    (Journal of Social Sciences Research, 2018-12) Butakor, P.K.; Dziwornu, M.
    The study aimed at determining factors influencing poor performance of students in mathematics in selected Basic Schools in the Ningo Prampram District in Accra, Ghana. Descriptive research design was adopted in which random and convenience sampling method was used to select 60 teachers for the study. Data was collected through questionnaire analysed using SPSS version 21. The study found that the most highly ranked school environmental factors responsible for student's low academic performance in mathematics were lack of supervision and monitoring of teachers by head teachers and circuit supervisors, larger class size and lack of teaching and learning materials in school. Similarly, the most highly ranked teacher factor that contributed to student's low academic performance in mathematics was untrained teachers teaching the subject. Also, high level of absenteeism among students and unruly student behaviour were the most highly ranked student's characteristics responsible for their poor performances in mathematics. For parental support, the highly ranked variables that contributed to poor performance in mathematics were parents not helping wards with their homework, inability of parents to provide wards essential instructional needs for mathematics studies and parents inability to approach the school to ascertain how their wards are faring in mathematics. However, independent t-test and ANOVA analyses did not find statistical differences between the gender of teachers and the qualifications with regards to perceived causes of low performance in mathematics. .It is recommended that metropolitan, directorate and circuit supervisors intensify supervision and provision of learning materials in schools.
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    Multilevel Modeling of Factors that Influence Mathematics Achievement in Ghana: A Secondary Analysis of TIMSS 2007 and 2011
    (2015-11) Butakor, P.K.
    The purpose of this study was to examine which student, teacher, and principal variables best explained the performance of the population of Grade 8 students in Ghana. This study was necessitated by the consistent low performance of Ghana's grade eight students in TIMSS since 2003. Ghana, as a country, ranked second last, second last, and last for the 2003, 2007, and 2011 TIMSS assessments. A probability sample of Grade 8 students in a probability sample of schools participated in the TIMSS 2007 (5,294 students nested within 162 schools) and 2011 (7,323 students nested within 160 schools). The students responded to the mathematics achievement test for which a matrix item and student matrix sampling design was used. The students, teachers, and principals responded to their respective questionnaires. Since the students were selected from classes that were nested within schools, HLM analyses were used to analyze the data. However, only one class was selected from each school in each year. Consequently, 2-level HLM analyses were conducted. Prior to the analyses, the maximum likelihood with expectation maximization (EM) algorithm was employed to replace all the missing values at both the student level and teacher/principal level for both 2007 and 2011,and exploratory factor analyses conducted for clusters of similar items in the three questionnaires to reduce the number of predictor variables. The final numbers of variables were 40 student and 40 teacher/principal variables in 2007, and 15 student and 37 teacher/principal variables in 2011. The final parsimonious HLM model contained 20 student variables and five teacher/principal variables which accounted for 27% of the student variance and 51 % of the teacher/principal variance in 2007; the corresponding numbers for 2011 were nine, seven, 20%, and 54%. The change in the number of variables in the final models for the two years is due to changes made in the questionnaires. These changes precluded comparing the 2007 and 2011 results other than to say the variance explained at the student level and at the teacher/principal level were similar in each year (approximately 20% at the student level and 54% at the teacher/principal level). Taken together, it was concluded that lack of proper preparation of teachers in rural areas, questionable school climate and safety, emphasis on lower rather than higher thinking skills, inconsistent use of homework, failure to engage students in their learning, lack of progress of girls, lack of students' interest and confidence in mathematics, and students' lower educational aspiration contributed to Ghana's low performance on the TIMSS 2007 and 2011 assessments. Implications for practice and recommendations for research are provided.
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    A comparison of DIF detection and effect size measures among Mantel-Haenzel, SIBTEST, and Logistic regression using a science test data
    (frican Journal of Science and Research, 2015-02) Butakor, P.K.
    The Differential item functioning (DIF) occurs when individuals of the same a bility level from separate groups have different probability of answering an item correctly. This study was conducted in two parts: in the first part a real science test data was analyzed and the consistencies among the three DIF detection procedures were examined and in the second part, simulated data for a short test was used in comparing the consistencies among the procedures. In the first part, students’ response data from a large-scale science achievement test were analyzed for gender DIF. A sample of 2600 (1500 males and 1100 females) was randomly selected for this study. The Science test consisted of 49 items. DIF statistical analyses were conducted on the data using MH, SIBTEST, and LR. All test statistics were interpreted at an alpha-level of 0.05. For SIBTEST, the guideline developed by Roussos and Stout (1996) was employed. The study suggests that the different procedures provided consistent estimates on the magnitude and direction of DIF and thus supports the recommendation that multiple DIF detec tion procedures should be used in real testing situation to reduce the uncertainty associated with the analysis interpretation of empirical testing data.
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    Hierarchical Linear Modeling of the relationship between Attitudinal and Instructional Variables and Mathematics Achievement
    (INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN EDUCATION METHODOLOGY, 2016-05) Butakor, P.K.
    Students’ achievement in mathematics is often considered necessary for the success of the future of a country. Therefore, the training and preparation of students to do well in mathematics has become fundamental goal of educat ion for most countries and more specifically in Ghana. Applying Hierarchical Linear Modeling on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007 data, the relationship between attitudinal and instructional variables and mathematics achievement among Ghana’s grade eight students was examined. Prior to the analyses, exploratory factor analyses were conducted for clusters of similar items to reduce the number of predictor variables. The results indicate that student’s gender, educational aspirations, self-confidence in mathematics, value for mathematics, and frequent use of some instructional variables were significant positive predictors at Level 1. Whiles amount of homework, years of teaching, major area of study were significant positive predictors, teaching license or certificate was a significant negative predictor at Level 2
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    The role of formative feedback in promoting higher order thinking skills in classrooms: a theoretical model
    (African Research Review, 2016-09) Butakor, P.K.
    Feedback plays an important role in the teaching and learning environment because it provides learners with information intended to help them improve their learning. For feedback to be successful in this role, the information from feedback must also highlight the type of thinking exhibited in performing any tasks. However, very few studies have been conducted to examine the role feedback plays in promoting higher order thinking. The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical feedback model that can promote higher order thinking. The components of the model include: conducive learning environment, instructional activit ies, task characteristics, validating students’ thinking, and providing feedback. Future research is needed to empirically test the variables and their relationships as proposed in the model.
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    Working together to improve the quality of mathematics education and students achievements: exploring the views of Ghanaian parents
    (African Research Review, 2017-01) Ampadu, E.; Butakor, P.K.; Cole, Y.
    Parental involvement in their children’s education and for that matter mathematics education has become one of the main areas of research interest. The purpose of this study is to explore the attitudes of Ghanaian parent-students towards their children’s education and the factor that influence their participation. An exploratory survey approach was used in this study, and a 38 item semi-structured questionnaire was used for collecting data. A total of 130 parent-students from enrolled in diploma and degree programmes in three universities took part in the study. Similar to the findings from other similar studies, the majority of these parents acknowledged the importance of parental involvement and indicated their willingness to be involved in their children's education. It was, however, interesting to note that majority of these parents have never seen or had access to the two main mathematics resources used in their children’s schools: the mathematics syllabus and the mathematics textbook. In addition, the majority of these parents see the teacher as the custodian of knowledge and seem to rely over on them for the success of their children. It is recommended that school and teachers have to be proactive in designing Maths Clubs and other activities to get parents actively involved.
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    Ghanaian Students in TIMSS 2011: Relationship between Contextual Factors and Mathematics Performance
    (African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 2017-09) Butakor, P.K.; Ampadu, E.; Cole, Y.
    Educational effectiveness research has witnessed some growth in the last three decades because the current era of global competitiveness compels each country to train and equip its citizens with knowledge and skills that would make them successful. Researchers from different countries are investigating factors across various levels within the school system that affect students’ learning outcomes and social development. This study applies a multilevel modelling technique (Hierarchical Linear Modeling) on the TIMSS 2011 mathematics data of the Ghanaian Grade 8 students to examine which student-, classroom/teacher- and school-level variables contributed significantly to the performance of Ghanaian students in mathematics. The results indicated that the education system in Ghana is similar to other education systems where the students’ academic achievement is correlated with a set of students, classroom/teacher and school characteristics. However, unlike other educational systems, the findings of the current study suggested that the difference in students’ achievement in mathematics is mainly due to school factors. It was concluded that the poor performance of Ghanaian students in mathematics is at least partially attributable to inadequate preparation of teachers, emphasis on lower rather than higher thinking skills, inconsistent use of homework, failure to engage students in their learning, lack of progress of girls, lack of students’ interest and confidence in mathematics and students’ lower educational aspiration.
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    The home environment as a predictor of mathematics achievement in Ghana
    (International Journal, 2017-01) Butakor, P.K.; Nyarko, K.
    This paper examined the significant role of the learner’s home environment in Ghanaian grade 8 students’ performance in mathematics in the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Applying multiple linear regression analyses on the TIMSS 2007 data from Ghana revealed a positive association between father’s educational level, watching of TV or videos regularly at home, reading books for enjoyment at home regularly, and doing homework regularly at home and mathematics achievement. On the contrary, a negative relationship was found between mathematics achievement and the number of books at home, home possessions, and the playing of computer games at home regularly. The paper concluded with the recommendation that the learner’s home background should be considered when designing policies and interventions aimed at improving students’ mathematics performance.