ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Pre-communication strategies of selected NGOS in community development projects a stakeholder approach

This research examines the pre-communication strategies employed by two Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the Greater Accra Region, specifically focusing on their community development projects. Utilizing stakeholder and participatory theories, the study investigates the characteristics and implications of these strategies. Data were collected through observations and interviews. Findings indicate that the NGOs prioritize the identification of primary and secondary stakeholders, conducting comprehensive stakeholder analyses that consider factors such as power, influence, demographics, and needs. The NGOs engage in a variety of activities, including collaboration with community leaders, interaction with donors and partners, social media engagement, and face-to-face communication. These strategies are vital for assessing community needs, enhancing stakeholder understanding, reducing operational costs, fostering community belonging, and building trust. The thematic analysis reveals the complexities inherent in NGO-community interactions, offering critical insights for improving communication strategies within community development initiatives. This study employs a qualitative research approach and a case study design.

Source: UEW
Pre-marital counselling and marital stability among selected churches in Ada community

Pre-marital preparation has been designed for couples prior to marriage and aimed at preventing future distress in marriage by providing an awareness of potential problems that may occur, and to foster the growth and satisfaction of marital unions. Pre-marital preparation comes in different forms in Ghana, including that of the family, community and religious bodies. This study focuses on counselling, which is one aspect of pre-marital preparation systems Christians offer to the would be couples before they get married. In most Ghanaian churches, pre-marital preparation has been a core component of the church socialization process. It has been viewed by churches as an effective means of reducing the high rate of divorce. In view of this, it becomes a social cause of worry when there is frequent breakdown in marriages among Christians. This trend however, appears to be common among Christians in Ghana and elsewhere in the World. It is against this backdrop of concern of the growing level of marital distortion among church members that prompted the attention of the researcher to investigate the effectiveness of pre-marital counselling on marital stability in Ada community using Kasseh as case study. The study employed the qualitative research approach and a case study design with information derived from participants, using purposive and convenient sampling techniques. The study uses data from interviews derived from leaders in six churches, twenty-one Christian couples and relay on documents to do the analysis. The study revealed that the churches have laid down processes to ensure successful counselling to their would-be married couples. The study therefore, recommends other forms of pre-marital systems be studied to unearth where the problem of high divorce rate emanates. It also recommends the establishment of marriage institution and adequate parenting as a way of curbing the rising trends of marital breakdowns in Ghana.

Source: UEW
Pre-school teachers’ perception on best practices in early childhood education in the Kassena Nankana Municipality

The purpose of the study was to find out the pre-school teachers’ perception on best practices in early childhood in the Kassena Nankana Municipality. A descriptive research design was adopted for the study. The study employed quantitative approaches through the use of self-developed questionnaires. The sample for the study was 217 pre-school teachers. Purposive sampling technique was used to select participants for the study. The data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistical tools. The findings from the study revealed that pre-school teachers were aware of and have knowledge about early childhood educational best recommended practices. Also, results from the study indicated that even though preschool teachers had knowledge about the early childhood best practices; they did not apply or implement them in the classroom. Some barriers including lack of teaching learning materials hindered the implementation of early childhood educational best practices among pre-school teachers in Kassena Nankana Municipality. It was recommended from the study that, the Ministry of Education should ensure that the developmental goals and objectives in the early childhood development curriculum reflected local values and informed approaches to classroom practices. It was further revealed that the curriculum should also reflect the customary practices, traditions, and rituals that touched the lives of children in various cultural contexts and encourage the participation of children in the everyday activities of their community. Early childhood teachers should be given professional training.

Source: UEW
Pre-school teacher’s perception about developmentally appropriate practices in Early Childhood Settings in the Ga North District

The study the assessed knowledge and practices of preschool teachers’ perception about developmentally appropriate practices in the Ga North District in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The descriptive research design was adopted for the study. A self-developed questionnaire was used to collect data. In all, 217 respondents were sampled using random sampling technique. The results from the study revealed that pre-school teachers are aware of and have knowledge developmentally appropriate practices. Again, the results from the study unravelled that even though pre-school teachers have knowledge about some of the developmental appropriate practices, they do not apply or implement them in the classroom. Finally, the study identified some challenges that included the lack of parental support, inadequate teaching and learning materials, lack of pupil’s readiness, Inadequate school facilities, lack of full government support, and attitudes of school heads. The study recommended that the Ministry of Education should provide teachers with comprehensive training and awareness about the use of DAP within a culturally-relevant context. Again, the Ministry of Education should ensure the developmental goals and objectives in the syllabus reflect local values and inform approaches to classroom practices.

Source: UEW
Pre-school teacher’s perceptions of Early Childhood Educational best practices in the Asante Mampong Municipality in Ghana

The study assessed knowledge and practice of preschool teachers about early childhood educational best practices in the Asante Mampong Municipality. A descriptive research design was adopted for the study. The study employed quantitative approaches through the use of self-developed questionnaires. In all Krejcie and Morgan sample size determination table was used to select 217 preschool teachers using the multistage sampling technique. The data were nalysed using both descriptive and inferential statistical tools. The findings from the study revealed that preschool teachers were aware of and had knowledge about early childhood educational best practices. Also, results from the study indicated that even though preschool teachers had knowledge about the early childhood best practices, they did not apply or implement them in the classroom. Some challenges including lack of teaching learning materials hindered the implementation of early childhood educational best practices among preschool teachers in Mampong Municipality. It was recommended from the study that, the Ministry of Education should ensure that the developmental goals and objectives in the early childhood development curriculum reflected local values and informed approaches to classroom practices. It was further revealed that the curriculum should also reflect the customary practices, traditions, and rituals that touched the lives of children in various cultural contexts and encourage the participation of children in the everyday activities of their community. Early childhood teachers should be given professional training.

Source: UEW
Pre-service biology teachers' knowledge, cultural beliefs and attitudes towards persons with genetic related conditions

Despite the increasing scientific knowledge, cultural beliefs and attitudes of preservice biology teachers towards persons with genetic conditions still seems to be negative and the stigmatisation attached to it is worrisome. It was therefore the purpose of this study to explore pre-service biology teachers‘ knowledge, beliefs and attitudes towards persons with genetic-related conditions in the Central Region of Ghana. A descriptive survey design was employed in this study. An intact sampling technique was used to sample 162 final year pre-service biology teachers from OLA and Fosu Colleges of Education who participated in the study. A five-point Likert Scale item questionnaire was used to elicit information from pre-service biology teachers to answer the research questions. The data was processed using SPSS version 20. The influence of pre-service biology teachers‘ knowledge on their attitude towards persons with genetic-related conditions was determined through correlational analysis. The study found out that the final year pre-service biology teachers had moderate knowledge on genetic-related conditions, positive cultural beliefs and positive attitudes towards persons with GRCs. Correlational analysis of their knowledge against their attitude showed that their knowledge had a little influence on their attitude. The study recommended that further studies should involve all preservice biology teachers

Source: UEW
Pre-service science teachers’ competence, self-efficacy beliefs and readiness levels in ICT integration in teaching science 1

The purpose of this study was to examine the levels of pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs, competence and readiness toward ICT integration in science teaching. Data was collected in two phases. The first phase consisted of a structured questionnaire, which was given to one hundred and seventy-two (172) pre-service science teachers at Wesley and Akrokerri Colleges of Education in Ashanti Region of Ghana to gather their opinions. The second phase involved structured face-to-face interview with purposive sample of twenty-two (24) pre-service science teachers, who had already responded to the questionnaire to explore or cross check major issues, which emerged from the questionnaire data. The instrument used in analysing the data collected was SPSS version 16.00. The quantitative results of the study showed that the pre-service basic science teachers had high levels of competence (with subscale mean of 3.71 and standard deviation of 1.07), self-efficacy beliefs (with a subscale mean of 3.72 and standard deviation of 1.08) and readiness (with subscale mean of 3.73 and standard deviation of 1.34) in ICT integration in science teaching. However, the qualitative data obtained from the study did not wholly reflect the outcome of the quantitative aspect of the study. In spite of the disparity between the quantitative and the qualitative findings, the results in general raise significant issues related to the quality of ICT integration regarding pre service basic science teachers’ competence, self-efficacy beliefs and readiness, which need to be given a serious consideration.

Source: UEW
Pre-service teachers' use of problem solving skills in dealing with simultaneous equations involving word problems

This study investigated how the use of problem solving techniques could improve pre-service teachers’ performance in word problems of simultaneous equations as well as interest in the subject. The second-year pre-service teachers at the Wesley College of Education, Kumasi, were involved in the study. The study employed the survey design and data were collected using pre-test, post-test and questionnaire/interview. The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics. The results indicated that the performance of the pre-service teachers’ on word problems of simultaneous equations had tremendously improved after going through the problem-solving skills. It was observed that the pre-service teachers after going through the research project activities grew in confidence in solving word problems involving simultaneous equations. It was therefore recommended among others that the mathematics curriculum for pre-service training should be reviewed to ensure the development of and use of problem solving techniques in the teaching and learning of mathematics.

Source: UEW
Pre-service teachers’ conceptual and procedural understanding of derivatives

This research explored pre-service teacher‟s conceptual and procedural understanding of derivatives. The research design that was used for the study was descriptive research design. Purposive sampling technique was used in the study to select sample of college students in the final year studying Mathematics and ICT in the Volta Region. The sample for the study was 61 pre-service teachers comprising 25 pre service teachers from one college of education and 36 pre-service teachers from other college. Conceptual and Procedural Understanding Based Test (CPUBT) was the prime instrument used in collecting the data on pre-service teachers Conceptual and Procedural Understanding of derivatives. The results indicated that pre-service teachers have a lot of conceptual and procedural difficulties in derivatives. They were weak in both geometric and physical concepts used in finding derivatives, and lacked procedures used in working derivatives. Consequently, 60% of pre-service teachers who participated in the study were unable to make use of action, process, object and schema analysis of problems involving the application of derivatives. The implication is that, pre-service teachers would use rote memorization of the concept for the purpose of passing their exams without understanding the application of derivatives in real-life scenarios. To achieve pre-service teachers‟ conceptual and procedural understanding of derivatives, mathematics tutors in the study area should put more emphasis on geometric and physical concepts in teaching derivatives. They should use more activities and exercises in teaching the concept and should use the constructive approach for students to also use their construct knowledge and activities in understanding the concept of derivatives.

Source: UEW
Pre-service teachers’ conceptual understanding of the arithmetic mean

This study explored pre-service teachers‟ (PST) performance and conceptual understanding of the arithmetic mean after going through the Ghanaian Junior and Senior High School's core and elective mathematics curriculum. It also sought to determine their level of conceptual understanding of the arithmetic mean with respect to the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO) taxonomy. The explanatory sequential mixed method was employed. The purposive, stratified and the simple random sampling techniques were employed to select 370 PST sampled from the Departments of Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics Education of the University of Education, Winneba. Statistical Understanding Test of Arithmetic Mean (SUTAM) was used as data collection tool. The data was analysed descriptively by using percentages and inferentially by the t-test and ANOVA. Results revealed that PST‟ performance on the SUTAM was low. There was no significance difference between the mean scores of the Trained teachers and the direct applicant. Findings also revealed PST have conceptualized the arithmetic mean as an average, as a computational act and as a non-zero measure. Also, the findings indicated that majority (55.1%) of the participants were at the multi-structural level of the SOLO Taxonomy with few (14.6%) at the Relational level. It was recommended that teachers teach the concept of the arithmetic mean with its properties to students before teaching the computation of the arithmetic mean.

Source: UEW
Pre-service teachers’ didactic conceptual structures in the absolute and quadratic inequalities

his paper examined the didactic conceptual structures of preservice teachers in the absolute and quadratic inequalities to deduce mistakes and errors. Quasi-experimental and mixed exploratory sequential designs were adopted on the participants who worked in 37 groups of 10 members in the Department of Basic Education, University of Education, Winneba in Ghana. The data collection instruments consisted of 15 open ended items on the basic ideas of the absolute and quadratic inequalities to identify the didactic content knowledge in solving the problems. The thematic analysis of the conceptual structures as well as the marked scores revealed the errors and mistakes in the inner structures, inner relations, representations, and vertical horizontal relations preservice teachers had confronted in solving problems in absolute and quadratic inequalities. The implications of these would impact negatively on the teaching and learning of mathematics curriculum, and inappropriately applied in a variety of daily lives

Source: UEW
Pre-service teachers’ inclusive practices in the mathematics classroom the case of Tumu College of Education.

The Pre-service teachers’ s have nowadays regardS inclusive classroom practices to be a struggle across the world. The purpose of this study was to investigate pre-service teachers' perceptions of inclusive classrooms and teaching mathematics during internships in Early grade and Upper-grade Schools in the Sissala East Municipality. A mixed method approach with a sequential explanatory design was used for data collection and analysis. A simple random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 123 respondents. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 20 participants for the interview and observation sessions. The instruments used were questionnaires, interview guide, and observation checklist. Questionnaire data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentages). The qualitative data were analyzed thematically. The major findings revealed that experimental method, learner-centred method, expository teaching method, differentiation instruction and conventional method were the teaching methods used. Again, the challenges that pre-service teachers encountered included: inadequate teaching resources, lack of competency, inadequate training, large class sizes, inadequate funds to purchase instructional materials to meet all learners and difficulty in modelling geometric concepts. The study generally found that pre-service teachers in the internship schools were of the perception that inclusive classrooms meant bringing children with special educational needs on board and adjusting the environment for all. The study recommends that pre-service teachers use enquiry base with the materials in the environment to teach. In addition, Pre-service teachers need to encourage learners to form small discussion groups and the Ministry of Education should organize special orientation programme for the Gender, Equallity and Social Inclusion(GESI) commitees in Colleges of Education for them to function well. Finally, the study concluded that Pre-service teachers perceptions of inclusive classrooms on teaching mathematics was influenced by knowledge and experience, cultural values, personal attitudes, mode of communication, expectation, motivation, and large class size. Teacher preparation programs need to be organized for the pre-service teachers in the Colleges to give them the basic skills necessary for inclusive school teaching.

Source: UEW
Pre-service teachers’ performance of using algebra tiles and its effects on their performance in linear equations in two variables. The case of E.P College of Education, Bimbilla.

The study investigated the effect of using Algebra Tiles (AT) in solving linear equations in two variables (LEQ2V); the challenges and perceptions of Pre-service teachers (PSTs) of E. P. College of Education (CoE), Bimbilla. A quasi-experimental design with mixed method approach, specifically the explanatory sequential design was adopted to collect data. The population was all the 595 level 200 PSTs of E. P. CoE, Bimbilla. Total sample was 100 PSTs comprising 58 Experimental group and 42 Control group PSTs. Sampling procedures used were convenient, purposive and simple random sampling. Instruments used were Algebra Achievement Test and questionnaires. Results from study showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the performance of experimental group and control group Pre-service teachers in using algebra tiles in solving linear equations in two variables in the pre-test. Also, individual performance of PSTs in using AT in solving linear equations in two variables in the pre-tests were very poor and indicating lack of knowledge of using AT in solving linear equations in two variables. The overall effect was that even though PSTs performance in modelling linear equations using AT was good, it did not translate into using AT in solving LEQ2V in the pre-test. The performance of PSTs in the Experimental group after the treatment in the post-test had increased tremendously from a mean of 1.26 in the pre-test to a mean of 16.57 whiles that of the PSTs in the control group remains almost the same from a mean of 1.07 in the pretest to a mean of 1.12 in the post-test. This increased in performance could largely be attributed to the treatment given to them. After analyzing comments from the questionnaire, majority of PSTs in EG indicated that the time used in solving LEQ2V was their major challenge. Also, they perceived using AT in solving linear equations in two variables to be time-consuming even though it makes the balancing method real and practical. It is recommended that College of education tutors should consciously consider using AT as an approach in solving LEQ2V and also give enough examples of the use of AT in solving linear equations in two variables to PSTs to solve to familiarize themselves with the solution processes.

Source: UEW