Effectiveness of pre-service economics teacher education programme of the University of Cape Coast: Perspective of economics teacher-trainees

Abstract

The thrust of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the preservice Economics teacher education programme of the Department of Arts and Social Sciences Education, UCC from the viewpoint of Economics teacher-trainees. The study used the modalities, as prescribed by the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) theory and 54 Economics teacher trainees who were in their final year of study (2015/2016 academic year) to address the purpose of this study. Questionnaire and semi interview guide were used as data collection instruments to elicit the background information of the respondents, as well as relevant datato answer the research questions. Descriptive and inferential statistics, the IPA model and thematic analysis were used to analyze the data gathered.It was found that the Economics teacher-trainees perceived the B.Ed. Social Sciences (Economics) programme to be effective inaddressing certain aspects of the programmeand not effective in addressing other aspects. Again, it was found that the perception aboutthe programme’s effectiveness as reported by Economics teacher-trainees studying Economics education with different minor subjects was the same. It was therefore recommended that, the Department of Arts and Social Sciences Education should consolidate effort in the areas where it has been shown that it has strength and pay attention to those aspects found in the ‘concentrate here’ quadrant of the IPA grid.