An assessment of teacher effectiveness in the public basic schools in the twifo-hemang lower denkyira district of the central region

Abstract

Parents, practitioners and policymakers agree that the key to improving public basic education in Ghana is placing highly skilled and effective teachers in all classrooms. So for more than two decades, policymakers have undertaken many and varied reforms to improve education in the Ghanaian public basic schools. The instruments used for the study is the questionnaire which was mostly the Likert scale type, an interview guide, study of relevant documents and an observation guide. In all, ten schools were selected from the ten circuits in the Twifo- Hemang- Lower Denkyira District. The Assistant Director Supervision and Monitoring, Circuit Supervisors, Headteachers, the English, Mathematics and Science teachers and JHS 2 students were selected for the study. One important lesson from the study is the repeated finding that teachers are the fulcrum determining whether any school initiative tips toward success or failure. The findings on teacher characteristics showed that some characteristics of teachers influence teacher effectiveness. Findings on teacher attitude revealed that teachers’ attitudes have an influence on their effectiveness. Among the recommendations from the findings are that, teachers should make themselves available at in-service training programmes and be guided by good morals. Also there must be an integration of training programmes on the strategies that promote teaching and learning.