Department of Teacher Education

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    Exploring postcolonial relationships within policy transfer: the case of learner-centred pedagogy in Ghana
    (Comparative Education, 2023) Sakata, N.; Yates, C.; Okrah, A.K.; et al.
    Framed by Homi Bhabha’s concepts of hybridity and the third space. of enunciation, this study explores postcolonial relationships conceivably enacted through policy borrowing processes of learner-centred pedagogy (LCP) in Ghana. Nine Ghanaian and Nine foreign stakeholders were interviewed. Conscious of the power imbalance implicit in traditional aid, the case project attempted to challenge the asymmetrical power relationships by allocating policy leadership and responsibility to Ghanaian stakeholders. However, the third space of enunciation created within the project, it did not seem to lead to a hybridization of pedagogical ideas: while it was the Ghanaians themselves who promoted LCP within the project, the conceptual basis of the reform was dependent on knowledge and experiences, which they gained in the West. This article concludes that the postcolonial turn through hybridization of indigenous and Western pedagogies was not observed, although hybridity may happen in the process of actualizing LCP at school and in the classroom levels.
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    The Elite, Elitism, and Ensuing Conversations in Ghana’s Higher Education: Myth or Reality?
    (Journal of Black Studies, 2019-11-11) Amuzu, D.
    Contemporary higher education in Ghana and many parts of Africa has European colonial antecedents. In spite of the many goals that it aspired to achieve, a preoccupation was to nurture an elite group. Though widely used, the concept of elite and elitism is vague and hardly conceptualized. It hoovers from status—occupants of the apex or top echelons of an organization/society, to consumption—people with immense wealth. Influence, on the other hand, seems to be a common denominator in both cases. But, does this capture the scope of the phenomenon? This article engages people who have worked in different capacities in Ghana’s higher education space to examine the deeper meanings that could be embedded in elitism, elicits conceptualizations of elitism, and further finds out how elitist higher education is in Ghana. Ultimately, the article intends to initiate a conversation on whether indeed there are elites being produced from the university system. This study was done with reference to an empirical study on decolonizing higher education in Ghana
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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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    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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    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.
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    The influence of motivation on the job satisfaction of Junior High School Teachers in Ghana
    (Journal of education and practice, 2014) Nyarko, K.; Twumwaa, D.A.; Adentwi, K.I.
    The study investigates the influence of motivation on the job satisfaction of teachers. The population of the study was Junior High School teachers in the Accra metropolis. The sample was drawn on two hundred Junior High school teachers in Accra with diverse socio-cultural backgrounds. A convenience sampling technique was used to select the teachers. The ages of the teachers range between twenty and sixty years and more than half of the teachers who participated in the study are trained teachers. As expected, the findings from the study indicate a positive correlation between teachers’ motivation and their job satisfaction. However, the study shows no significant difference in the level of satisfaction of teachers who are intrinsically motivated and those who are extrinsically motivated. Finally, the hypothesis that females will be more extrinsically motivated than males was not supported. The implications of the study are discussed
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    Illness perception, religiosity and mental health of diabetic patients in Ghana
    (Am J App Psychol, 2014-02) Nyarko, K.; Kugbey, N.; Atindanbila, S.
    This study examines the influence of diabetic patients’ perception of their illness and their levels of religiosity on their mental health problems. A sample of 194 diabetic patients was drawn from two major hospitals (Korle-Bu Teaching and Tema General Hospitals) in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The cross-sectional survey method was used as the study design. Results from Pearson correlation show that the diabetic patients’ level of religiosity did not significantly correlate with their mental health problems. However, illness perception correlates significantly and positively with their general mental health problem (GSI) and specific ones such as somatization, obsessive-compulsion, depression, anxiety and psychoticism. Multiple regression analyses show that level of general mental health problem (GSI) was significantly predicted by perception of illness Coherence followed by perceptions Symptoms and Concern. Similarly, perception of coherence was the most significant predictor of both depression and anxiety among diabetic patients. The implications of the findings are discussed.
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    T2DM patients’ demographic characteristics as moderators of the relationship between diabetes perception and psychological distress
    (International Journal of Applied Psychology, 2015-05) Kugbey, N.; Atindanbila, S.; Nyarko, K.; Atefoe, E.A.
    This study examined the relationship the relationship between T2DM illness Perception and Psychological Distress and further investigated whether this relationship is influenced by demographic characteristics such as Sex, Age and level of Education. A total of 139 persons living with T2DM were sampled from Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana. The respondents were administered with demographic questionnaire, the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire and the Brief Symptom Inventory. Pearson correlation and Hierarchical Multiple regression analyses were done and the results indicate that illness perception is significantly and positively associated with the level of psychological distress among persons with T2DM. However, this relationship was not significantly moderated by their sex, age and level of education. The findings from the study indicate that the association between illness perception and psychological distress among persons with type-2 diabetes is not significantly affected by their demographic characteristics age, sex and level of education. It is therefore concluded that the focus of psychological interventions should be targeted at modifying the negative thought patterns of the patients regarding their illness.