misconceptions about teaching in ghanamisconceptions about teaching in ghana

misconceptions about teaching in ghana28 May misconceptions about teaching in ghana

It is noteworthy that disability is listed on the observation checklist and reflective journals of student teachers as part of their preparedness on the equity and inclusivity outcome. in Behavioral Science, a Masters in Education, and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study in Education Leadership. I explained that teachers must advocate for students and how that can often get them in trouble with administration, but tenure protects them. The B.Ed. The upgrading of teacher training institutions to colleges of education: Issues and prospects. These include talking, and chalking, marking . Attitudes towards inclusive education in africa scale (ATIAS): an instrument to measure teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education for students with disabilities. Particularly, the target 4.5 calls for the elimination of gender disparities and inequities in education, specifically highlighting the need to ensure access to education for persons with disabilities. Umm.Not.So.Much. If your Aunt Sally really wants to help, she can vote for legislation that ensures teachers are paid fairly. Geffen, R. (2013). Nancy was a Top 50 Finalist for the Varkey Global Teacher Prize 2015. The lower part of the diagram further illustrates the impact of contextual factors such as environmental (e.g., social, physical, transportation, and information barriers) and personal factors (e.g., education, gender, social background, and profession). The aim of this module is to introduce students to the huge variation in geography that exists within the complex continent of Africa Key Stage Three, Module, Global perspectives, geopolitics and development, Urbanisation, migration and society Sections Overview Africa: scale and diversity Dealing with common misconceptions of Africa Ghanas 2019 SDGs Budget Report. (2021). In their observation checklist, it is important that the students also identify whether what they identify are accessible to all learners particularly, persons with disabilities. Initially, myths were largely on causes and vulnerability. (2019). Although the students are also asked to find out if there were students with learning needs in the classroom, and whether the teacher provided support and the kind of support provided. London: UPIAS. The FCUBE concentrated on enhancing the standard of instruction and learning, expanding educational access, and promoting the involvement of all school-age children, including the formation of local educational organizations to facilitate effective management of education (Agbenyega et al., 2005). In 2012, Burnett and Felsman (2012) signaled the debate on post Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and pointed out the need to incorporate the SDGs in education, particularly in educational institutions. Figure 1 gives a pictorial illustration of how a particular health condition/disorder could affect the body functioning, activity and participation. The inclusive policy of Ghana envisions the curriculum to be functional and consider the childs cultural background, family/community resources, values, interests, aspirations, future goals, and opportunities. Misconceptions previously reported include the interpretation of warning signs of pre-eclampsia as a normal occurrence during pregnancy. "Teacher Unions Impede Education Reform". The promises and limitations of the SDG framework for inclusive education and students with disabilities in Grading Goal Four. 23, 15. These misconceptions resulted in perceptions of stigma and discrimination towards people who may get Ebola or work with Ebola patients. The components of the learning outcomes we analyzed in the light of the SDGs Goal 4 targets 4.5, 4.6, and 4.8 and the social model of disability (See Supplementary Tables S1S3). Oliver, M., and Barnes, C. (1998). Disability and health: Fact sheet. Evolving Indian strategy on SDGs and scope for regional cooperation. Naami, A. Consistent with Ghanas commitment to ensuring that all children are given the opportunity to exercise their rights through inclusive education, it ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Article 6 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and the Dakar Framework for Action. (2019) explains that while the CoE provides a yearlong school-based teaching practice in addition to a semester-long campus-based peer teaching, their colleagues offering education degrees in the University of Cape Coast (UCC) engage in a semester-long school-based teaching experience. 1, 78377846. Further reading: A Chance to Build Meaningful Relationships with Students, 5. doi: 10.1016/S0031-9406(10)62916-1. Buabeng et al. 25, 2139. I was shocked that my Facebook friend didn't understand teacher tenure either, so I posted its legal definition. This study investigated the use of concept cartoons to diagnose and remedy pupils' misconceptions in selected science concepts. B. Afr. United Nations Educational, Scientific and cultural organization [UNESCO]. Teachers in the U.S. do make far less than similarly educated professionals. Available at: https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/204336.pdf (Accessed May 10, 2022). International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health: Children & Youth Version: ICF-CY. Available at: www.t-tel.org/hub.html (Accessed June 30, 2022). true, instead, the Vocationalization of Ghana's education will put money into people's pockets (Anamuah-Mensah, 2004). Tertiary institutions such as universities, Colleges of Education and nursing training institutions have been recognized as drivers toward achieving the SDGs particularly, SDG 4, considering the formative roles they play in molding the future of young people in countries (Machado and Davim, 2022). So, when they go out, they will observe the teacher to see if they are exhibiting these qualities. These questions, as far as I can tell, partly state some of the misconceptions about the teaching of CSE. The teacher in the observation checklist can indicate that he/she is an inclusive teacher but prejudices and discrimination against persons with disabilities could cloud their self-consciousness about persons with disabilities. Examples of the disabling environment are societal structures, values, culture, environmental constructs (Geffen, 2013), inadequate access to healthcare, transportation, physical and institutional barriers (Barnes and Mercer, 2005; Naami, 2014). Calles, C. (2020). doi: 10.1080/1034912X.2019.1651833, Buabeng, I., Ntow, F. D., and Otami, C. D. (2019). We evaluated the four learning outcomes under the equity and inclusivity of the cross-cutting pillar. (2018). Unlike gender which was given much attention and detailed reflection in the Colleges of Education curriculum. They also observe some of the qualities of the classroom teacher. Umm.Not.So.Much. J. Soc. Moria, A., and Morgado, B. Figure 1. Most teachers I know work other jobs during the summer months. Attitudes and Disabled People. Ofori, E. A. That the student teacher reflection is aimed at increasing their disability sensitivity and inclusion is fallacious. Available at: https://www.ntu.eu/news-archive/the-importance-of-the-sustainable-development-goals/ (Accessed May 3, 2022). Education is necessary for persons with disabilities to break out of the cycle of poverty as recognized by both the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Sustainable Development Goals. Kokutse, F. (2018). Western Governors University WGU. Available at: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/21252030%20Agenda%20for%20Sustainable%20Development%20web.pdf (Accessed July 29, 2022). doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.05.309. It seems everyone has an opinion about teachers and their profession these days and most of them arent teachers. Breaking the barriers: Ghanaians perspectives about the social model. Post-2015 Education MDGs. Traditional beliefs and knowledge base about epilepsy among university students in Ghana. But the section seems to relate more to learners with learning difficulties. The requirements for a qualified teacher include all of the skills needed for the 21st-century workplace. Mary Montag, teacher, St. Teresas Academy. To these little ones, reading must be fun. Received: 29 September 2022; Accepted: 16 January 2023; Published: 23 February 2023. 29, 316321. It was widely speculated that black people had some immunity against COVID-19. I explained that tenure is a right to due process, so a teacher can't be fired without the administration presenting evidence that the teacher was incompetent or unprofessional. What are some of the misconceptions and prejudices about teaching and how can they be addressed ? Thus, there should be more exercises to enable the student teachers to strengthen their reflection on disability to improve acceptance of persons with disabilities. There are two major case study designs: single-case study designs and multiple-case study designs. Mundial, Grupo Banco, and UNICEF. Awareness of oneself is vital to bracketing biases and prejudices against vulnerable populations, including persons with disabilities. 68, 95115. As someone who has supported many people into work, both as a recruiter and an employment specialist, I am here to tell you that you absolutely can teach! As our own founding fathers knew, we need checks and balances in our schools. Ghana is no exception. Dev. 27, 689701. CBR Incl. Article 8 of the CRPD outlines measures that states parties could adopt to ensure that persons with disabilities are able to access education, including vocational training and lifelong learning. There were storey buildings with no elevators, most of the entrances to the buildings were inhibited with steps and not ramps. However, disability is not mentioned in the four learning outcomes of the equity and inclusivity of the cross-cutting pillar and their targets. All Rights Reserved. Stay up-to-date with the latest edtech tools, trends, and best practices for classroom, school and district success. Stay up-to-date with the latest edtech tools, trends, and best practices for classroom, school and district success. The student teacher is also expected by the curriculum to recognize what makes him/her an inclusive teacher. The observation checklist requires student teachers to identify traits of professionalism of their mentor teachers compared with theirs. doi: 10.5430/jct.v9n1p86. The estimated number of persons with disabilities could be underestimated due the multiple layers of issues surrounding disability data collection, including attitudinal issues, disability definition, access to persons with disabilities, mode of reporting disability, that is, self-reporting (people may not report disability, especially those that are not very visible) some of which are concealed from public view due to stigma. One of the major features of the policy is that it adheres to universal design for learning. In Ghana, a considerable milestone has been the integration of the SDGs into the medium-term development of Ghana. The SDGs target 4.8 outlines the need to build and upgrade educational facilities that are disability sensitive. In year one, student teachers are required to do classroom observations to enhance their learning. Assuming there is a learner with a mobility disability who uses a wheelchair in a school, will his/her characteristic of having an impairment be considered the barrier or some known access barriers such as storey building without elevators and staircase without accessible ramps? Higher Education for Sustainable Development Goals. Republic of Ghana (2019). doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2013.07.034, PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar. One College of Education in the southern sector of Ghana was the site for the study. Her work has appeared in The Huffington Post, The Guardian, Scholastic, Inc., the College Board, the Center for Teaching Quality, and Education Week. "Teachers Have a Paid Summer Vacation", Each year, teachers must take an unpaid furlough during July and August. Adjei, P., Akpalu, A., Laryea, R., Nkromah, K., Sottie, C., Ohene, S., et al. The Equality Act 2010 and the Social Model of Disability. Chaturvedi, S. (2021). The data sources were a face-to-face in-depth interview with the Quality Assurance Officer of the case and one site observation by the researchers. Here, Jo discusses common misconceptions that may prevent career changers from entering the teaching profession. Prod. Crit. Ironically, the final question suggests the above reflections would have been helpful to increase disability sensitivity and inclusion. Spec. The focus on myths and misconceptions is borne out of the fact that they are potential threat to preventive efforts [18-20]. Available at: https://ghana.un.org/en/about/about-the-un (Accessed August 10, 2022). (2015). ), can be reviewed. How to Respond to the 6 Biggest Misconceptions About Teaching by Nancy Barile, Award-Winning Teacher, M.A.Ed. I created a meme about the misconception, and almost immediately, a former classmate of mine wrote, "It also makes it almost impossible to get rid of bad teachers.". As part of the global communitys efforts to address social problems collectively, post the Millennium Development Goals era, the Sustainable Development Goals were birthed in 2015 (United Nations [UN], 2015). Both researchers independently coded the data to enhance the credibility of the study. According to the Colleges of Education Act of 2012, Act 847, the process of preparing teachers in Ghana to teach at the basic school level takes place at the College of Education (CoE). S. Grek, C. Maroy, and A. Verger (Milton Park: Routledge), 4358. However, when we prob. In two different studies conducted in sub-Saharan countries, 66.3% to 99.7% were reported to have misconceptions about the etiology of TB, 27.6%-90% likewise misunderstood the symptoms of TB, 0.1% . Bentzen, L. (2015). As the quality assurance officer of this particular institution, these are some of the questions I ask my coordinators. Also, the B.Ed. For persons with disabilities, self-awareness is even more important given the socio-cultural and religious beliefs and practices that marginalize and discriminate against them and the resultant negative attitudes, stigma, discrimination, and exclusion and of persons with disabilities in all spheres of life (Kassah et al., 2012; Adjei et al., 2013; Dugbartey and Barimah, 2013; Naami, 2019). National Teachers Standards Guidelines for Ghana: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. eds. All Rights Reserved. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Emmanuel College in Boston, MA. Misconceptions are often deeply held, largely unexplained, and sometimes strongly defended. The policy sets an agenda of child friendly schools, which implies schools in Ghana ought to look out for children; that is child-seeking and again they should focus attention on children; that is, schools should be child-centered. Access to higher education in Ghana: examining experiences through the lens of students with mobility disabilities. Presently, there are 48 Colleges of Education (CoE) in Ghana, up from 38 in 2014 (Buabeng et al., 2019) and in the 2018/2019 academic year, all Colleges of Education in Ghana were upgraded to University Colleges status to offer a four-year Bachelor of Education degree (Kokutse, 2018). This paper is framed on a case study methodology within the context of utilizing the social model of disability to examine the curricula of Colleges of Education in Ghana by investigating whether the student teacher is prepared enough to promote inclusive education. 2010 Population and Housing Census: Summary Report of Final Results . GhanaS free senior high school policy: evidence and insight from data. (1994). Coast, Ghana E-mail of the corresponding author: kodwo33@gmail.com Abstract The general objective of the study was to evaluate the perspectives, conceptions and misconceptions of students on Industrial Attachment. Welcome to the Ministry of Education Changing Ghana Through Education. Wheelchair accessibility to public buildings in the Kumasi metropolis, Ghana. Barrett, P., Treves, A., Shmis, T., and Ambasz, D. (2019). curriculum is used by Colleges of Education and other Universities offering education programs, as it was collaboratively produced by four teacher education universities with senior members of Colleges of Education (Ministry of Education National, 2017). Beliefs on epilepsy in Northern Ghana. Using the curriculum to promote inclusive education? Politicians often like to say that teacher unions are part of the education problem, but as someone who has been teaching for decades, I can tell you that teacher unions are good for both teachers and students. In a world where competition for jobs, pay increases, and academic success continues to increase, certifications offer hope to candidates and educators. Misconception:Force is always in the direction of an object's motion.21 Transfer of Energy Concept: Objects come to the temperature of their surroundings. Naami, A. G. Scambler and S. Scambler (London: Palgrave Macmillan), 5776. The observation checklist and reflective journals do not make enough room for student teachers to self-reflect on disability, which could be a barrier to the education of persons with various forms of disabilities. J. The Politics of Disablement. Herp-Ghana. It could be an ice breaker or other warming up exercises that could exclude learners with disabilities. Agyire-Tettey, E. E., Naami, A., Wissenbach, L., and Schdler, J. However, they posit that persons with disabilities are disabled more by their environment and other processes than their perceived impairments (Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation [UPIAS], 1976). The Colleges of Education award diploma qualifications, while the universities awards Bachelor of Education degrees and PGDE/certificates in education. We asked our key informant about how they teach students to self-reflect. J. The Curriculum Framework is aimed at preparing competent teachers, and against which all Teacher Education Curricula, including the 4-year Bachelor of Education (B.Ed. Social Policy and Disabled People: From Exclusion to Inclusion. There are so many more misconceptions about teaching that I could easily write a Part II to this article. Senior High School Education in Ghana, from September 2017 became free (Tamanja and Pajibo, 2019). In many districts, teachers elect to have their salary divided over a 52-week period so they still have money coming in over the summer. 9, 8695. The overarching goal of the Inclusive Education (IE) policy is to ensure that schools identify children with different learning needs and adopt appropriate curricula that will meet their learning requirements (Ofori, 2018). Confronting them is difficult for the student and the teacher. J. Int. Neubauer, C., and Calame, M. (2017). Teach. The SDGs Goal 4.5 explicitly mentions persons with disabilities. The Togo slippery frog was thought to be extinct. Clearly, some people will hold onto their mistaken views no matter how much evidence you present them. curriculum tasks student teachers to Identify school and student characteristics that act as barriers to learning. However, this statement is problematic as it is a wrong premise to understand barriers to learning for learners with disabilities. In fact, the entire Colleges of Education in Ghana curriculum seems to focus on students with learning difficulties. Teacher education training for basic and secondary schools are undertaken by initial teacher education institutions. The study explicitly followed a qualitative approach to research specifically a case study design. For example, ICF combines both the social and the medical models of disability. doi: 10.21125/edulearn.2019.1906. 12, 2832. Howard, H. A., and Rhule, A. But here's what teachers do make: a difference in the world. The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. Disability and Health. Attitudinal barriers are cited as major barriers to the inclusion of persons with disabilities in all spheres of life in Ghana (Kassah et al., 2012; Adjei et al., 2013; Dugbartey and Barimah, 2013; Naami, 2014). The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) provides a comprehensive framework to describe health and health-related issues including disability. A Togo slippery frog rests in grass. And since the student teachers are required to Recognize how the teacher is a key influence on a learners self-esteem and, as a consequence, their learning potential, there is the need for student teachers to be grounded in disability awareness to understand persons with disabilities, their issues and needs and how best they could be helped. Teaching is the profession that makes all others possible, and what it lacks in salary, it makes up for in job satisfaction. The SDGs 4 set out to achieve inclusion and equality in education whilst the social model of disability provides us with the opportunity to identify barriers to inclusion and how to address them. Your source for IT solutions and innovations to support school-wide success. So, the student teacher could identify a television as a resource for learning, but their reflection report does not create room for them to report on whether the resource is beneficial to learners with disabilities. Once you find one, you do your possible best to know the causes of the disability or how the person is being helped throughout his or her stay in the schoolWe specifically ask them to identify a child with the disability and even how the facilities and resources in the school support the child. Johnstone, C. J., Schuelka, M. J., and Swadek, G. (2020). London: University World News, The Global Window on Higher Education. The Social Model of Disability: Europe and the Majority World. Each period lasts 45 minutes and each grade is expected to receive an average of 45 periods of instruction a week covering all subjects (nine periods a day for all subjects). Int. The forms and the student handbooks were published by the government of Ghana under the Transformative Teacher Education and Learning (T-TELL), School Partnership Program with support from the British government. The proponents of the social model of disability contest that a students personal characteristics such as having an impairment is not the major impediment to learning, but barriers created by schools and society (World Health Organization, 2011; Nakua et al., 2017; Braun and Naami, 2021). Access of the surroundings of the classroom and school facilities should be target for reflection given that inaccessible school environment affects learning outcomes (Moria and Morgado, 2018; Braun and Naami, 2021). Education has long been recognized as a global priority. These points provided below are responses and comments that were duly and diligently gathered through surveys and seminars in an attempt to provide some possible ways of raising teaching standards to an appreciable level in the country. The main body of the module focuses on a comparison between two contrasting countries in Africa: Sudan and Ghana. Teaching should therefore involve the full participation of pupils. This has the potential of influencing the learning experience of such students in the classroom. eSchool News uses cookies to improve your experience. In spite of the progress that Ghana has made in improving access to school, several children cannot read or write. The sample comprised 37 Junior High School (JHS) pupils and one science teacher in Abelemkpe Junior High School in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. Available at: http://www.who.int/disabilities/world_report/2011/report.pdf (Accessed June 17, 2017). Disabil. Lack of oral competence of both teachers and the children in the target language equally hinder the child's reading progress. (2018a). Stud. In response to the challenges confronting the education of students with disabilities in Ghana, stakeholders have made concerted efforts in the education sector to embrace the ideals of inclusive education.

When A Cancer Man Wants You Back, Tobias Dorzon College Stats, Medical Laboratory Assistant Supporting Statement, New Restaurants Coming To Wichita Ks 2022, Why Did Izzy Leave Christina On The Coast, Articles M