Effects of Teacher Training on Secondary Teachers’ Mathematical Content Knowledge in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Sheikh Asadullah

doi:10.18775/ijied.1849-7551-7020.2015.25.2005

Abstract

In Bangladesh, there are improvements in secondary education by quantitative indicators but the satisfactory picture is remained far from the quality. The gross deficiency in teaching includes one of the main reasons for poor quality of secondary education. There are higher failure rates in Mathematics subject in Secondary School Certificate examination in the last consecutive years. An extensive review of research has shown that teachers account to a large extent for student learning and achievement gains. For secondary teacher education in Bangladesh, there is a one-year long training program named as Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.). Therefore, the study sought to find out the effectiveness of B.Ed. training program on mathematics teachers’ content knowledge as a mean of improving secondary school mathematics in Bangladesh. The study was conducted among 38 mathematics teachers (trained and untrained) selected from 16 secondary schools of Dhaka city using survey method. Teacher’s content knowledge was measured through an assessment test and classroom teaching observation. The study found that though the B.Ed. trained mathematics teachers (96.3%) possess better content knowledge than their counterpart (91.7%) but no relationship between teachers’ personal characteristics and their content knowledge in mathematics. This is the first study to investigate the effectiveness of secondary teacher education program within Bangladesh. It contributes important insights about secondary teacher education that can be used to inform the professional development of the secondary school mathematics teachers in Bangladesh.

Highlights

Bangladesh has seen education as critical to poverty reduction, economic progress and prosperity (Andeleeb, 2007; Ministry of Education [MoE], 2012) and have made “international commitments to ensure the achievement of ‘education for all’ goals and targets for every citizen by the year 2015” (Rahman, Hamzah, Meerah & Rahman, 2010, p. 115)
The study found that though the B.Ed. trained mathematics teachers (96.3%) possess better content knowledge than their counterpart (91.7%) but no relationship between teachers’ personal characteristics and their content knowledge in mathematics. This is the first study to investigate the effectiveness of secondary teacher education program within Bangladesh. It contributes important insights about secondary teacher education that can be used to inform the professional development of the secondary school mathematics teachers in Bangladesh
The Mann-Whitney U test, (Z = 2.442 and p = 0.015) showed that there was a difference in the score of the content knowledge between the two groups; it indicated that the teaching mathematics between the two groups of teachers was significant

Summary

Introduction

Bangladesh has seen education as critical to poverty reduction, economic progress and prosperity (Andeleeb, 2007; Ministry of Education [MoE], 2012) and have made “international commitments to ensure the achievement of ‘education for all’ goals and targets for every citizen by the year 2015” (Rahman, Hamzah, Meerah & Rahman, 2010, p. 115). Various government and nongovernment initiatives have resulted in significant progress with regard to access to both primary and secondary education such as more schools and teachers, curriculum revision and increased enrolment rates especially for girls in secondary education (Rahman et al, 2010). For enhancing the quality of primary and secondary education the government of Bangladesh has been considering teacher education as a major factor. Despite the significant progress in access, equity and public examination success; weakness has been identified in the quality of secondary education in the students’ mathematics achievement (Ahmed, Nath, Hossain & Kalam, 2006; Nath et al, 2007). An extensive review of International Journal of Innovation and Economics Development, vol 2, issue 5, pp. 40 -55, December 2016

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion