Understanding teachers’ usage of YouTube as a pedagogical tool: A qualitative case study of basic school teachers in Ghana

Abstract

YouTube has been widely considered as a pedagogical tool over the last few decades. Recent findings from research portray YouTube videos as an instructional part of learning that contributes to best practices in teaching. Much of the studies have focused on usage by teachers and students at the tertiary level without much attention given to basic school teachers. Using an exploratory qualitative case study design and the ICT Pedagogical Beliefs Classification framework, we explored teachers’ usage of YouTube as a pedagogical tool. We drew on the experiences of 18 teachers in 3 private schools in Ghana to find out how Youtube was used in instruction. Four dominant ways of usage were identified. YouTube was used as a teaching tool, a means of enhancing specific topics, a means of learning new and varied ways of teaching, and as a means of developing teachers’ professional competence. Findings showed that whilst some of the ways of usage align with constructivist methods of teaching others still fall within traditional and teacher centred approaches to teaching. We argue that for teachers to enact meaningful pedagogies with technology through a more student-centred model, their knowledge and skills need to be developed alongside the reshaping of their motives and reasons and subsequently the ways in which they use technology for teaching. We recommend the planning and reinforcement of innovative instructional design of technological integration for teachers through informed policy and the use of training interventions to build new skills geared towards constructive and creative teaching suited to developing a net generation of students.