Learning In Ghana Research Articles

“Another Year Lost?”: A Novel Approach to the Online Learning in Ghana

“Another Year Lost?”: A Novel Approach to the Online Learning in Ghana

Applying a cumulative risk and protective framework to assess early learning in Ghana

ABSTRACT Many children in developing countries do not acquire functional literacy skills despite being in school. We apply a cumulative risk (aggregate over a range of risk) and protection framework to assess Ghanaian kindergarteners’ early academic skills (N = 1,852, M(age) = 5.3 years; 50.2% female), considering how family-level risk factors and classroom-level protective factors contribute to the development of early academic skills over one school year. Using multi-level regression analyses, we find that cumulative risk negatively predicts children’s early literacy and numeracy skills at the start of kindergarten, as well as literacy skills at the end of the school year controlling for autumn scores. Additionally, high quality teacher–child interactions promote learning regardless of cumulative risk. However, further analyses indicate that classroom quality does not moderate the association between cumulative risk and spring outcomes. Implications for policymakers to engage in a two-generation (targeting parent and child) approach to child development in low- and middle-income countries are discussed.

Online Instructional Experiences, the Challenges of Students and Tutors of Some Selected Colleges of Education in Ghana

Interest of Students is the bases upon which any effective online learning hinges. It is for which reason, management of the institution designed courses and activities that allow students to effectively practice, work together on relevant projects to facilitate their individual learning. In emerging institutions like the Colleges of Education, inclined towards professional development, online education is the medium to enhance access, improve standards and enhance labour productivity by overcoming space and work limitations. The study looked at the conduct on online teaching in Ghana and revealed that the systems for online teaching and learning are a new phenomenon. Again, student-teachers are saddled by poor internet connectivity, high cost of data in an emergency learning environment. Despite these challenges, a significant proportion of student-teachers would still choose online learning as they work and earn certificates. In view of this, the study recommends for policy in this area to institutionalize online education into the curricula of all professional institutions of higher learning in Ghana, including the various College of Education in Ghana.

Reward Practice and Employees Performance Relationships: An Empirical Study of Tertiary Educational Institutions of Higher learning in Ghana

The study aimed to explore the management of performance from the perspective of rewards, which has received much attention due to the huge investments continually been put into tertiary education globally. This quantitative study argues that there is the need to determine the reward that goes with the expected performance and that, it is through the identification of rewards for a particular task that leads to an effective attainment of an equitable balance between contributions from both the employee and the organization respectively. This quantitative study used a canonical correlational method, through the use of a self-administered survey to investigate the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards to performance of educational institutions of higher learning in Ghana, focusing on both academic and non-academic employees. The findings from the analysis was statistically significant in defining relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic reward practices, and that both predicted performance of academic and non-academic employee of educational institutions of higher learning in Ghana. The findings therefore emphasize that employees of educational institution of higher learning in Ghana understand that when employees are psychologically satisfied intrinsically, then a social context is created for conducive teamwork and other discretionary behaviors be achieved extrinsically, for enhanced general working conditions at the work place. Keywords: Intrinsic rewards; extrinsic rewards; education institutions; employee performance DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-32-12 Publication date: November 30 th 2020

Challenges Junior High School Pupils Face in the Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Tools for Learning in Ghana

Aims: This paper seeks to explore the challenges Junior High School pupils in the South Tongu District in the Volta Region of Ghana face in the use of Information and Communication Technology tools for learning. The rationale was to identify the challenges these pupils face in the use of ICT tools for learning and the possible means to overcome these challenges in the school.
 Research Design: To achieve the purpose of this studya descriptive research design was used.
 Place and Duration of Study: Agorkpo D.A. J.H.S in the South Tongu District of Ghana was used for this study for over six months.
 Methodology: The study adopted the quantitative approach, employed descriptive research design and used questionnaire to collect data from 60 students. The entire questionnaires were retrieved and IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 22.0 in combination with the Microsoft excel were used to analyse the data. Simple frequency tables were also used to present the data.
 Results: The research revealed that the commonest challenges of using ICT tools for learning were lack of opportunity provided by teachers for students to use the tools on their own, inadequate ICT tools and difficulty teaching ICT practical lessons without demonstration.
 Conclusion: Measures identified to improve the use of ICT tools in the school include the call on government to provide the required ICT tools to the school. Secondly, in order to achieve meaningful academic improvement in the school, teachers must spend more time to teach the ICT subject and create the enthusiasm in the students. Thirdly, supervision of ICT teachers should be taken seriously to ensure that they meet time-table requirements for ICT in the school. Also, requisite ICT tools should be used by the teachers to demonstrate the processes and application of ICT in everyday life. This way, pupils would easily understand the concept and be able to apply it practically and independently. Finally, the study recommended that an ICT laboratory be built for the school to house the ICT department and provide an atmosphere that can motivate the teachers and learners to show more interest in the subject.

Reflections and refractions on Sakai/Moodle learning management system in developing countries: A case of Ghanaian universities’ demand and supply perspective analyses

Technological advancement has revolutionized teaching and learning in the twenty-first century. However, the full benefits are yet to be realized and clearly understood due to user experience data paucity, especially in developing countries. This study delves into the issue from both the demand and supply perspectives. The demand-side analysis interrogated students’ perceptions of the tonic and toxic facets of using the Sakai/Moodle learning management system, while supply-side analysis explored the perceived roles of university lecturers and university authorities in embedding this new culture in Ghana. Using a mixed-methods approach, two universities in Ghana were selected to serve as focal organizations. Long interviews with graduate students provided the qualitative data, while a survey of under-graduate students yielded the quantitative data. Triangulation revealed that despite nascent challenges, students found LMS to be useful in learning, and that lecturers and school authorities played pivotal roles in routinizing learning management systems (LMS) in Ghana. Mode of study, students’ gender, age and perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of using ICT for teaching and learning as well as the role of lecturers and university authorities in enhancing the quality and sustainable use of LMS for teaching and learning in Ghana were found. The findings suggest that universities stand to benefit from the adoption and use of educational technologies for teaching and learning. Universities ought to consider the varied cognitions, affect and perspectives of students on teaching and learning technologies, when designing relevant policies that support the employment of ICT-enabled educational practice.

Experiences of adult learners on using the Sakai Learning Management System for learning in Ghana

The advancement in information and communication technology and its application in teaching and learning tools have taken learning to a higher level. Innovations in information and communication technology and its deployment in teaching and learning aid adult learning through the distance education mode. Accra Learning Centre hosts the biggest student population pursuing degree programmes through the distance education mode in Ghana. Simple descriptive statistics were adopted to help build a case for using the qualitative data. A descriptive narrative design was employed for conducting the study which tilts towards the qualitative case study approach to investigate the meanings and experiences adult learners have had when using the Sakai Learning Management System platform. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions were used to collect data from 50 adult learners who participated in the study. Most (80%) of the learners indicated that they faced difficulties, including accessing computers, course materials online, weak link, poor network interface and connectivity, as well as power fluctuations when they started learning with the Sakai Learning Management System, which changed with time. The information and communication technology platform created greater access to self-learning. The study concludes that the information and communication technology laboratories should be refurbished – and equipped with new computer accessories – for an increased access to the Sakai Learning Management System.

Social capital development as innovation in human resource development: A case of Technical Universities in Ghana

Social capital expresses the social relationship between people in an organization. A good relationship between employers and employees can enhance commitment and productivity. It also makes a positive contribution to organizational performance. Universities and other higher education institutions are the main entities that create, innovate and develop social capital in a country. The development of social capital effectively allows higher education institutions to advance the economic, social and political development of a country. Institutions of higher learning in Ghana should innovate and develop human resources via social capital for the sake of the country’s socioeconomic advancement. Innovation in organizations is more likely to happen if social relations are taken into due account. This study focuses on two Technical Universities in Ghana. The assumption is that innovation in social capital can develop the human resources of academic staff, allowing them to be further committed to work, and keener to be retained. The study that emanated from the researcher’s D.Tech. research project employed qualitative research approach in the form of interviews in data collection. It was found that creating innovation in human capital development through the use of social capital can ensure staff commitment and retention; aspects Technical Universities in Ghana cannot take for granted.

Attitude and Perception of Academic and Administrative Staff towards Progression in Higher Institutions of Learning in Ghana

Contribution/ Originality: This study contributes in the existing literature by analysing staff motivation and how it is linked to their career progression. High level of motivation exists among staff with positive impacts on job performance. Issues of staff promotions (fairness, transparency, timeliness), conducive work environment, and putting concrete succession plans in place is advocated for a more sustained quality education.

Establishing the Need to Use Mobile Phones in Distance Learning in Ghana

Establishing the Need to Use Mobile Phones in Distance Learning in Ghana

With a little help from (where I see) my friends: Social and spatially embedded learning in Ghana

Arguing that the types of learning discussed in the entrepreneurship literature have little bearing for the developing world’s self-employed, we undertake a qualitative study to develop a grounded understanding of how post start-up learning actually occurs. We find that a dearth of wage employment, and education opportunities, necessitates the leveraging of social ties to both make up for a lack of knowledge at start-up, and to keep abreast of changes in a dynamic field. More than this, we find that learning is spatially grounded with the physical location of one’s business being an important factor for binding together social and human capital.

Using technology acceptance model to measure the ese of social media for collaborative learning in Ghana

In this Digital era, thousands of teens in the universities use social network sites, it has become a way of life. Social Media Usage has recently received numerous debate in its impact on academics, with its advent, communities have become link to each other, but the lecture room still remains quite isolated, from other teachers, students, and a host of others who could potentially enhance learning. This study aimed at investigating the impact of social media usage on students’ academic performance through collaborative learning among university students in Ghana. (Based Davis et al,. 1989) Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), a conceptual framework was adopted for the study. To achieve the objectives, a quantitative data analysis method was employed. A total of 200 students were randomly surveyed for the study. Regression analysis revealed that, Interaction with peers, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness had a significant positive relationship with collaborative learning. Furthermore, results suggested that there exist a significant mediation effects on the relationship between social media usage dimensions and academic performance. TAM does not take into account environment or economic factors that may influence a person’s intention to perform a behavior. The study recommends a clear mobile learning methodologies, rules and policies for integrating student activities on social media into their final grades.

Basic school teachers’ perspective to digital teaching and learning in Ghana

This study proposes a model for describing the situation of Digital Teaching and Learning (TD-TaL) in Ghanaian schools using the perspectives of basic school teachers. The Digital Teaching and Lear...

Implementation of Preceptorship in Ghana: “Marriage between school and clinical settings”

This research study was designed to explore roles of nursing students, preceptors and nurse educators in the implementation of preceptorship in the Ghanaian context. Preceptorship provides the opportunity for preceptors to offer practical experience to nursing students in the clinical setting. In order to provide effective clinical teaching and learning in Ghana, preceptorship was introduced in nursing education and preceptors were prepared primarily to provide clinical teaching at the clinical settings in Ghana. Ghanaian nurse educators therefore draw on preceptors to supervise students in the clinical practice setting. In Ghana, however, preceptorship is faced with challenges such as ineffective lines of communication between the nursing educational institution and the clinical settings. To date, little research has been conducted to examine preceptorship in Ghana. Focused ethnography was used to guide the current study. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 26 participants. Eight nurse educators, nine nursing students, and nine preceptors from a regional hospital and a diploma level nursing educational institution in a small city in Ghana participated in the study. The findings from this study revealed that the preceptors’ role involved predominantly teaching and the evaluation of student performance. The nurse educators supervised both students and preceptors in the clinical setting. The major roles of students included asking questions and expressing an interest to learn. In Ghana, preceptors, nursing students and nurse educators played important roles in the implementation of preceptorship. Inadequate preceptor support, lack of equipment and discrepancies during the evaluation process however, were major challenges to effective clinical teaching and learning. It is worth noting that that the use of preceptorship in this resource deprived setting is a major accomplishment.

Accessibility Considerations for e Learning in Ghana

This paper reports on a study that explored the best ways to design e learning in order to provide better access for adult learners with disabilities. Two districts from the Central Region of Ghana were selected and two major research questions guided the study. The five-point Likert scale was employed between May and August of 2014. The two questions asked were: The kind of issues that should be taken into account in the design and management of accessible e learning? And what problems need be resolved to have accessibility solutions for e-learning by the diverse adult learner population in the region? The results confirm existing insights about accessibility considerations in Ghana, other African countries and the world at large for the disabled, showing that Ghana and other African countries are not unique in terms of accessibility requirements in designing e learning in order to provide better access for adult learners with disabilities.

Curricula and Inferential Factors That Affect Student Achievement in Rural, Urban, and Peri-Urban Senior High Schools in Ghana

Teaching and learning in Ghana’s Senior High Schools (SHSs) are guided by a centralized curriculum, teaching syllabus, textbooks, assessment criteria, and examinations, yet rural–urban disparities exist in educational resources provision, which significantly affect teaching and learning processes and student achievement in the SHSs, particularly those on the Visual Arts program. To understand the factors that cause rural–urban differentials in student performance in different SHSs in Ghana, we adopted a qualitative–quantitative research approach with interview, observation, and questionnaire administration to examine teaching and learning of Visual Arts in six public SHSs: two each in rural, peri-urban, and urban settings in metropolitan Kumasi. Findings from data sourced from 120 students (66 males; 54 females), 17 teachers (15 males; two females), and 24 Visual Arts lessons revealed that unlike Visual Arts education in urban SHSs, student achievement in rural and peri-urban schools is hampered by lowered criteria for admitting students into Visual Arts, large class sizes, lack of studio facilities, insufficient specialist teachers, and instructional time for teaching elective Visual Arts subjects, adoption of ineffective teaching strategies, setting of low academic standards, and inadequate funding for teaching practical lessons. Unlike rural and peri-urban SHSs, urban schools organize speech and prize-giving days to motivate students, and effectively collaborate with Visual Arts students to mount art exhibitions to showcase their creativity. Improving the quality and distribution of social infrastructure, educational facilities, and qualified teachers, and actively monitoring educational standards in rural and peri-urban SHSs could raise academic achievement for students in all parts of Ghana.

Examination of Stakeholders’ Awareness and Preparedness for On-Line Learning in Ghana

The advent of Information Technology (IT) has broadened and widened education delivery in most countries of the world. Consequently, some countries are using IT to deliver education to people online. Unfortunately, however, on-line learning has not been widely instituted at all levels of education in Ghana. Certainly, before the educational institutions in the country can embark on such an endeavour, the concerns of stakeholders who have vested interest in on-line learning ought to be ascertained and addressed appropriately. This is necessary because the success of running an education programme such as on-line learning programme is dependent, to a large measure, on the extent to which it satisfies the whims and caprices of its stakeholders. Against this backdrop, the study was conducted to ascertain the awareness, concerns and preparedness of stakeholders for on-line education programmes. The study used questionnaire as a data collection tool. The empirical data were collected from stakeholders of tertiary education. The study has unraveled respondents’ high level acceptance of on-line learning and indication of financial preparedness for on-line learning. The study has also unveiled that stakeholders’ level of awareness of on-line learning is good, yet they have some concerns that need to be addressed to engender high patronage when it is widely introduced in the country. It is recommended that seminars, conferences and workshops be intensified to improve stakeholders’ awareness on on-line learning. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6p469

Conflict Prevalence in Primary School and How It Is Understood to Affect Teaching and Learning in Ghana

Verbal and non-verbal interactions that occur daily between teachers and headteachers, teachers and pupils, and among pupils can generate conflict that may adversely affect teaching, learning, and schooling effectiveness. Little attention is, however, paid to the quality of relationships that exists between teachers and pupils, among teachers, among pupils, between teachers and their school heads, and between schools and their local communities. This study sought to investigate conflict prevalence in Ghana’s primary schools, and how relationship conflict is understood to affect teaching and learning at the level of headteachers as administrators, teachers as classroom managers, and pupils as learners, and direct beneficiaries of primary education. Using data gathered via interview, questionnaire administration, and observation in 30 public primary schools in 10 circuits of one district of Ashanti Region, the findings revealed a high prevalence of fighting, heckling, bullying, and other forms of relationship conflict among pupils; strained teacher–pupil relations due to insolence, indiscipline, and use of offensive language; and teacher–parent arguments and quarrels due to harsh punishment and verbal assault of pupils. Teacher–pupil conflicts may extend to teachers excluding the affected pupils from teaching and learning activities, denying them the rights to ask and answer questions, and have their class exercises marked, leading to lowered pupil self-esteem, reduced concentration during lessons, and passive involvement in learning activities, which could result in truancy and school dropout. Strengthening guidance mechanisms and encouraging peer mediation could significantly curb conflict in school environments and thereby raise educational standards in the district.

An investigation of secondary school students’ attitudes toward pedagogical use of ICT in learning in Ghana

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate secondary school students’ pedagogical use of information communication and technologies (ICT), their attitudes toward integration of ICT and the differences in their attitudes based on gender, school type and location. Design/methodology/approach – The data was collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics, multivariate analysis of variance and multiple regression analysis. Findings – The study revealed that students’ use of ICT to support their learning was low. Students mostly used ICT to communicate with peers. Students’ methods of assimilating knowledge were through teacher-centred teaching, even though they somewhat used ICT for collaborative and inquiry learning. Students in public schools perceived the use of ICT more valuable than students in private schools. Also, the study provided evidence that students in urban and rural schools differed in their attitudes in terms of perceived value and cost of ICT use, but no differences in attitude in terms of expectancy of success were found to exist among students in all locations. Originality/value – The study provided further evidence that the value of ICT positively related to students’ pedagogical use of ICT, but the effect was very limited. This implies that although students have positive attitudes toward the benefits of ICT in learning; many do not integrate the technology into their learning. Lastly, the study was able to provide additional evidence that perceived cost negatively related to students’ pedagogical use of technology, but the result was very small. This indicates that since many students do not utilize ICT in their learning they rarely encounter barriers or challenges when it comes to the integration of the technology into their studies.

Assessing the reliability and validity of the Revised Two Factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ2F) in Ghanaian medical students.

Purpose:We investigated the validity and reliability of the Revised Two Factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ2F) in preclinical students in Ghana.Methods:The R-SPQ2F was administered to 189 preclinical students of the University for Development Studies, School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Both descriptive and inferential statistics with Cronbach’s alpha test and factor analysis were done.Results:The mean age of the students was 22.69± 0.18years, 60.8% (n=115) were males and 42.3% (n=80) were in their second year of medical training. The students had higher mean deep approach scores (31.23±7.19) than that of surface approach scores (22.62±6.48). Findings of the R-SPQ2F gave credence to a solution of two-factors indicating deep and surface approaches accounting for 49.80% and 33.57%, respectively, of the variance. The scales of deep approach (Cronbach’s alpha, 0.80) and surface approach (Cronbach’s alpha, 0.76) and their subscales demonstrated an internal consistency that was good. The factorial validity was comparable to other studies.Conclusion:Our study confirms the construct validity and internal consistency of the R-SPQ2F for measuring approaches to learning in Ghanaian preclinical students. Deep approach was the most dominant learning approach among the students. The questionnaire can be used to measure students’ approaches to learning in Ghana and in other African countries.