A vision of successful schooling: Ghanaian teachers’ understandings of learning, teaching and assessment

Teacher Educators’ Practice and Vision of Good Teaching in Teacher Education Reform Context in Ghana

“…Through professional development, teacher educators could study these practices to sensitise them to their perspectives. Evidence from research on experienced school teachers' practices in Ghana suggests some have the capacity and experience to articulate constructivist approaches to teaching and learning, under real classroom conditions where they have to balance many pressures, including teaching large classes with limited resources (Akyeampong, Pryor, & Ampiah, 2006).…”

Coming to knowabout teaching, its development and researcher practice through collaborative action research with adult education teachers in Sudan

“…Teachers operate within other structures of power relations, such as local government education inspectors, reflecting the restrictive role that school inspectors can have in African contexts (Akyeampong et al, 2006). These particularly relate to how teachers use the textbook, in terms of progressing through the curriculum and the teaching methods that are used.…”

“…Critics of the dominant discourse surrounding education in Africa question the portrayal of the African teacher as an "authoritarian classroom figurehead who expects students to listen and memorize correct answers or procedures rather than construct knowledge themselves" (Akyeampong et al, 2006, p.155). Rather, they emphasise the complexity of schooling processes and the need to comprehend the teachers' understandings of education objectives and teaching and learning practices, as well as the importance of the social context of schooling, the environmental and resource-related factors and the teachers' sense of agency within school structures (Akyeampong et al, 2006). As argued by Guthrie (1990, p.227), it is "teachers' perceptions of the realities of the educational system and the context in which it functions govern their professional behaviors to a marked extent."…”

“…Research into African education must analyse "teachers' reasoning about teaching, learning and assessment" (Akyeampong et al, 2006, p.160, original emphasis), as well as their practice, which results from the practitioners' enactment of their tacit theories. Contextualised understanding, therefore, progresses beyond the superficiality of large-scale studies to provide insights into the conceptions, experiences and practices of those 'at the chalk-face', and, fundamentally, act to counterbalance dominant concepts of professional practice, generally abstracted from western sources (Akyeampong et al, 2006).…”

“…An overview of the discussion topics is presented in Table 1. The ideas for some of the initial discussion topics were drawn from Akyeampong et al (2006), while the activities were based on various participatory and action research sources (e.g. Altrichter et al, 1993, Pretty et al, 1995, Chambers, 1997, as well as from my own experience of teaching and facilitating discussion groups.…”