Assessing Teacher Preparation in Physical Education at the Colleges of Education in Ghana

Abstract

Teaching can be reflected in the words of Aristotle when he said that "those who educate children well are to be honoured more than those who produce them, for those who educate them give them the art of living well" (Hellison & Templin, 1991, p.32). According to Siedentop (1983) teaching must be viewed as a set of observable process skills to be practiced, evaluated and reflected upon in ensuring improved future performance. Siedentop pointed out that several broad areas of salient teacher behavior that contribute to effectiveness of teaching, organization, instruction, motivation and human relationships should be implemented to better provide appropriate practice at a reasonable level of difficulty for pre-service teachers. Practicing pedagogical fundamentals is necessary for all teachers to continually improve overall instruction performance. Hellison and Templin (1991) argued that in learning to teach, pre-service teachers are asked and expected to comprehend general information about the subject matter. For example, curriculum models and teaching principles of equipment management and planning, principles of motor learning, intra-task skill development and then applying general knowledge to the particular teaching situation. The demand of field experiences and student teaching require the ability to recall this information to interpret it in light of a specific context. The enhancement of the implementation of curriculum depends on many factors. Two factors identified to have been critical to curriculum implementation are human and material resources. Dunkin (1988) identified teacher training activity as one of the major issues that educational evaluators should address emphasizing teacher preparation as an essential consideration of curriculum implementation. Teachers should have a broad general education with specialized teaching in child and adolescent development and methods of teaching. Silverman (2011) corroborated this by declaring that curriculum studies in teacher education should aim at equipping teachers with the knowledge and skills necessary to implement curriculum, use available materials and participate in developing new curriculum materials. Adequate preparation should also be given to teachers who will handle the programme to ensure effective implementation of any policy. Teachers acquire their pre-service preparation from Colleges of Education (COE) where they gain competencies to teach all the subjects including Physical Education (P.E) at the basic school level. In view of this, it is prudent to introduce measures to raise the quality of teaching in the COE in order to improve the quality of education in our basic schools. As regards the teaching of P.E. the COE are to build among others adequate competencies in trainees; to enable them help pupils develop their P.E. abilities and to understand the nature of P.E., prepare student for games and sports festivals, maintain various equipment, and design and make simple man-made or improvised equipment for classroom use.