Journal of Educational Review

Impact of teachers' pedagogical skills on teaching and learning of practical agriculture in Senior High Schools in the Sagnerigu district of Northern Ghana

2024-10-30T07:57:36+00:00

This paper examined the effects of teachers' pedagogical skills on the teaching and learning of practical agriculture in Senior High Schools (SHSs) in the Sagnerigu Municipality of the Northern region of Ghana. Through a multi-stage sampling technique 120 students, 15 teachers and 3 heads of departments of agriculture were sampled and interviewed with semi-structure questionnaire. From the analysis of data collected from the sampled respondents, five teaching methods namely demonstrations (78.5%), discussion (78.6%), questions and answers (71.4%),project work (50.0%) and experiments (50.0%) were the main methods used in teaching practical agriculture. The analysis of the surveyed data also reveals significant relationship between students' interest in agriculture and the attitudes of teachers during lessons (µ= 69.21, SD = 9.65). Inadequate funds, insufficient tools/equipment, short duration of practical lessons in addition to poor community-school relationship were the problems encountered in organizing agricultural science practical in schools. It is recommended for teachers to adopt positive attitude and use varying methods in teaching practical lessons in order to arouse students' interest and skills competency. It is also recommended to the Ghana Education Service to help in equipping SHSs running agriculture science programmes with needed tools and equipment for effective teaching and learning of agricultural practices.

Intelligence quotient as correlates of lower primary school pupils' performance in Social Studies in Osun state, Nigeria

2024-10-30T08:10:09+00:00

The study examined the level of intelligence quotient as correlates of lower primary school pupils' performance in Social Studies in the study area. The study adopted correlational survey research design. The population comprised lower primary school pupils in Osun state. The sample size consisted of 500 pupils who were selected using multistage sampling procedure. Two research instruments were used to gather data for the study. The data collected were analysed using simple percentages, frequency counts and Pearson Product Moment Correlation at 0.05 significant level. The results showed that the selected pupils had a high level of intelligence quotient in the study area with percentage value of 69.7%. The result also showed a significant relationship between pupils' level of intelligence quotient and pupils' performance in Social Studies (r=0.436, P<0.05). The study concluded that there exists a positive relationship between intelligence quotient and performance of the pupils. The study recommended that pupils should be made to undergo intelligence quotient test frequently and regularly to enable the teachers and school identify pupils' abilities and overall achievement.

Preventing modern slavery in Ghana: A case for a district modern slavery league table in Ghana

2024-10-30T08:58:00+00:00

The 1992 Republican Constitution of Ghana under Article 36 mandates governments to take all necessary action to ensure freedoms, happiness and welfare of Ghanaians. In pursuit of this constitutional provision, the state has equally enacted several laws and policies to promote sustainable development, social inclusion and to safeguard the rights and freedoms of citizens. The Ghana Children's Act, 1998 (Act 560) is the parent law that protects the rights of children. There is also the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651) which protects the rights of workers. The Domestic Violence Act, 2007, (Act 732) protects the rights of women, children, and men against violence in domestic relationships, whilst the Human Trafficking Act, 2005 (Act 694) and the Human Trafficking (Amendment) Act, 2009 (Act 784) prescribe appropriate punitive punishment for persons who traffic persons. Despite all these laws, the 2021 population and housing census statistics in Ghana revealed that 230,000 (3.2%) children within the age group of 5-14 years were engaged in economic activities. This revelation therefore motivated the researcher to find out the reasons for the rise in the incidence of modern slavery cases in Ghana and what ought to be done to stem the situation. The researcher therefore sampled four regions, eight districts and twenty-five communities in Ghana where modern slavery incidences are endemic and collected data from household members and key informants from media houses, CSOs and government institutions. The findings established that knowledge of household members of modern slavery was generally high. As high as 79% had knowledge of child labour, 71% had knowledge of forced marriage, 68% forced labour, 40% sexual abuse, 36% unfair contracts and 32% domestic servitude. The finding also identified poverty as the main reason why people engage in modern slavery. The study also found out that 80% of the agribusinesses in the study area were not registered under fair trade and therefore did not operate under fair trade principles and standards. The study therefore concluded on a note to state and non-state organisations to increase awareness raising activities on modern slavery campaigns, improve targeting of livelihood empowerment programmes for the low-income households and for the National Development Planning Commission to introduce an annual district Modern Slavery District League Table to monitor and rank the performance of districts based on agreed anti-modern slavery indicators.

Moving beyond the ad hoc responses to flood management to a localization approach in Ghana

2024-10-30T09:07:25+00:00

Flooding has become one form of disaster that has become both a national and global concern. In Ghana, flooding has become a yearly ritual, displacing many community members, destroying farmlands, and cutting off communities. The state institutionmandated to coordinate and manage disasters is the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO). However, NADMO is always overwhelmed with the level of humanitarian assistance required by flood victims annually due to limited resources. Floods management in Ghana is largely reactionary and short-term, hence the need for long-term planning. The researchers therefore used both secondary and primary data to investigate the drivers and gaps in the existing flood management approaches. The findings showed that inadequate funding, non-enforcement of settlement and farming laws; unhealthy environmental practices and low investments in flood containment infrastructure were the drivers of the perennial floods in Ghana. The major gap identified was the over reliance on central government and development partners to finance flood preparedness, response and recovery interventions which has been inadequate and irregular. The study concluded with a recommendation to NADMO and other state agencies to adopt a long-term, holistic and locally driven approach to flood management in Ghana.

Constraints and restrictions to community participation in school developments at primary schools in the Sagnarigu Municipal, Ghana

2024-10-30T09:16:01+00:00

This study examines the constraints and restrictions to community participation in school developments at primary schools in the Sagnarigu Municipal, Ghana. Qualitative research approach was adopted. The design used was case study with an adoption of convenient sampling technique where three (3) primary school heads, six (6) primary school teachers, three (3) School Management Committee Members and three (3) Parents Teachers Association Members were selected. Face-to-face in-depth individual interviews were conducted. Data collected were analysed thematically. Findings revealed inadequate integrations of community initiatives in
school developments, poor school-community relationships, inadequate consultation with communities, lack of awareness creation on community roles in school developments and there was inadequate incorporation of community voices into school decision making processes. Some recommendations made were that the Ghana Education Service (GES) should use Radio and Television media to constantly educate both schools and communities on the significance of community participation in school developments. School Management Committees should include influential members from the communities in school governance. Schools should at least in a year have three meetings with communities to inspire them develop a sense of schoolcommunity partnership and a sense of ownership. School Management Committees should incorporate community's voices and contributions into their decision making processes.

Supervisory practices in schools: Antidotes to deficiency in teacher professional development and pedagogical competence at junior high schools in the Kumbungu District, Ghana

2024-10-30T09:24:09+00:00

This study examines how supervisory practices can be an antidote to deficiency in teacher professional development and pedagogical competence at junior high schools in the Kumbungu District, Ghana. Qualitative research approach was adopted. The design used was case study. Purposive sampling techniques was used to select ten (10) school heads and twenty (20) teachers from ten (10) different junior high schools in the Kumbungu District. Face-to- face interview was conducted for the samples. Thematic analytical approach was deployed to analyse data collected. Findings revealed teacher supervision is an important activity in the education system as it puts proper checks on teachers' work in schools. Teacher supervisory practices in some schools were weak and inadequate, teachers were difficult, uncooperative and sometimes hostile. Challenges to teacher supervision included low level of supervisory skills by supervisors, inadequate logistics, poor road network, lack of vehicles or motorbikes for monitoring and lack of supervision allowance. Recommendations made included; the Ghana Education Service (GES) organising supervisory trainings for all school heads and circuit supervisors on Clinical Supervision. The GES should train all school heads and circuit supervisors on collegial supervisory skills, constructive supervisory skills and supportive supervisory skills. Teachers in all schools should be sensitized on the need and significance of teacher supervision in the education system. The Ghana Education Service should supply all education units with adequate logistics and they should pay all supervisors monthly supervision allowances.

Insight into research productivity: Conceptual, theoretical, meta reviews and research agenda

2024-10-30T09:30:21+00:00

The significance of research productivity (RP) of an academic staff cannot be underrated. RP is one of the major responsibilities of academic staff. It is central to rewards, advancement and prestige of an individual academic staff. Besides, RP by academic staff is a way of showing accountability to the stakeholders of higher education institutions. The significance of RP to higher education stakeholders suggest a need to enhance RP of academic staff. One way to achieve this need is to have a holistic understanding of the concept and determinants, of RP. The first objective in this paper is to review literature on the concept of RP in order to bring out how the concept of RP has been defined and measured by previous scholars and the gaps they left for future researchers. The second objective is to review a theory (Mantikayan & Abdulgani's, 2018) that suggests predictors of RP. The third objective is to do a meta review, that is, to review literature reviews on predictors of RP as suggested by the theory in order to isolate gaps and propose hypotheses for future researchers.

Analysis of the Impact of Education for Peace on Peace Building and Peace Culture Among Early Childhood Education Teachers in Onitsha Education Zone, Anambra State Nigeria.

2024-10-30T09:39:04+00:00

This study examinedthe Impact of Education for Peace on Peace Building and Peace Culture Among Early Childhood Education Teachers in Onitsha Education Zone, Anambra State Nigeria.The paper analyzed the impact of Education for peace on peace building and peace culture in Nigeria. This was prompted by the inherent incompatibility between the objectives of individuals, ethnic/social groups in the study location. Specifically, this study analyzed the extent in which education for peace can be used to promote peace building and Peace culture among early childhood education teachers in Onitsha Education Zone. The study adopted purposive random sampling to sampled 70 Public and Private 50 junior secondary school teachers from Onitsha Education Zone, Anambra State making a total of 120 sample size. Internal consistency and reliability of the survey instrument (questionnaire) items were tested using the Cronbach alpha method with a coefficient of 0.82. T-test and descriptive statistics were employed to analyze the data collected from the field. To a greater extent, the study found significant relationship between Education for Peace, peace building and peace culture in the study location. Based on the findings from the survey, the study concluded that education for peace has significant impact on peace building and peace culture in the study location. Hence, the study recommends that Education for Peace, golden rule and other ethical codes of conduct should be infused into the curriculum of the junior secondary schools in Onitsha Education Zone and that Government should advocate for cross cultural education if education for peace is to gain a lasting grip in Onitsha Education Zone Anambra State Nigeria.