The advent of technology has opened the frontiers of education, especially with the introduction of electronic learning (e-learning) in the field of pedagogy. However, many institutions are still emerging in e-learning deployment and are faced with complex challenges despite the existing potential for the effective development of e-learning. This current study seeks to explore the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) to integrating e-learning for teaching purposes from the perspective of the academic staff of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Ghana. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey in which 102 teaching staff from UCC participated. Among the major perceived threats and weaknesses reported were; lack of capacities in terms of institutional facilities, academic staff competencies, fluctuation of internet connectivity, and inadequacy of computers. The strengths and opportunities of integrating e-learning in this context were reported in the participants understanding of the potential of e-learning in teaching and their willingness to undergo training for this purpose. The findings of the study reveal that transforming teaching and learning through e-learning innovations beyond rhetoric requires systematic efforts at the teacher and institutional levels as well as other stakeholders.
The public outcry about students’ poor performance in mathematics can be said to have gained currency in recent times, in the dailies in Ghana. The outcry has been fueled by the fact that Ghanaian eight graders have always been among the least performing in international assessments such as TIMSS. Since available literature is replete with the fact that students’ attitudes of their mathematics classroom environment influence their attitudes to their classroom activities and hence their mathematics achievement, this study was designed to determine the attitudes of junior high school pupils towards their mathematics classroom learning environment. A total of 350 eighth and ninth graders (i.e., forms two and three junior high school students) from four public and two private randomly selected schools in a metropolitan community in southern Ghana participated in the study. The study adapted the mathematics attitude questionnaire (MAQ) instruments, a questionnaire designed to measure students’ attitudes of their classroom environment on four different subscales. The results revealed that, though in general, the attitudes of students were positive, that of the private school students were relatively more positive than their public-school counterparts in each of the subscales. Implications of this are discussed and recommendations for classroom teachers and future research are also presented.
The use of social media and IT application tools as an alternative pedagogical approach in higher educational institutions of learning cannot be compromised. Considering their incalculable advantages especially, in these times of the COVID-19 pandemic where closure of schools characterised some of the mitigating factors which wedged pedagogy. Nonetheless, quite a few institutions have taken advantage of these technologically inclined resources to facilitate teaching and learning. Therefore, this study explores the perceived usage of social media outlets and IT application tools in the University of Cape Coast (UCC) as a means of pedagogy by the Academic Staff. The study employed a cross-sectional survey as result of which 102 Academic Staff were sampled. The findings disclosed that the use of social media (i.e., Twitter), online collaborative tool (i.e., Google Hangouts) as a means of pedagogy is conspicuously absent among the teaching staff. Whiles some IT application tools (i.e., Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive) were hardly used in the classroom context, although the participants revealed possessing the skills in the use of such social media outlets and the IT application tools at their individual level. However, the use of Presentation tools (i.e., Microsoft PowerPoint), Spreadsheets (i.e., Microsoft Excel) and Word Processing (i.e., Microsoft Word) were mostly used to facilitate teaching and learning. The study recommends the adoption and enforcement of these resources by the management of the university. Taking into cognizance, the numerical strength of the yearly enrollment of students into the University vis a viz its limited infrastructure.
The study is aimed at enhancing pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and skills of in-service mathematics teachers (IMTs) using cooperative teaching and learning approach (CTLA). A sequential multiple case study was employed to develop eight IMTs knowledge and skills to design, develop, and enact lessons in trigonometry. The lessons were anchored on CTLA in two phases of a professional development arrangement (PDA) initiated in the study. The analysis of classroom observation, interview, CTLA lessons and the independent sample t-test is suggestive of significant improvement in the IMTs PCK. Further, although, the IMTs were rooted in teacher-centered pedagogies and encountered challenges, they effectively incorporated CTLA as a pedagogical tool in the teaching and learning of trigonometry. As a result of which, IMTs exhibited an enhanced content knowledge. Implications and recommendations for effective PDA in incorporating CTLA as an innovative pedagogical strategy for the teaching of mathematics at high school are discussed.
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