Lessons Learned from Observing Teaching Practices: The Case of Ghana

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for providing a quality education for all by 2030. In order to achieve the SDGs and improve educational outcomes globally, it is essential to understand what teaching strategies teachers use and to comprehend if students are learning. The purpose of this study is 1) to understand what teaching pedagogies Ghanaian teachers use in their Low-Fee Private Schools (LFPSs); and 2) to determine whether students stay on task. Using the Stallings Snapshot Observation instrument, the researchers observed 19 class periods in numerous grades in four schools. Findings reveal that the teachers used a combination of active and passive pedagogies and that there is no direct relationship between the pedagogies used and time on task. This study is important because it paves the way for others and poses the question of how to operationalize quality education in diverse cultures.

Keywords: Classroom observation, teaching, pedagogies, Stallings, Ghana, Low-Fee Private Schools

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-12-02

Publication date: April 30^th 2019