Investigating the technological pedagogical content knowledge of social studies teachers in the senior high schools in the Kumasi Metropolis

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the technological pedagogical content knowledge of Social Studies teachers in the Senior High Schools in the Kumasi Metropolis in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The study used “Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)” by Mishra and Koehler (2006) as the theoretical framework. The study was descriptive in nature.The population comprised all the 136 Social Studies teachers in the nineteen public Senior High Schools in the Kumasi Metropolis. Structured questionnaires with a Crombach alpha co-efficient of 0.90 and an observation checklist of aCrombach alpha co-efficient of 0.912 were used to collect data. The statistical methods used in the analysis were descriptive and inferential statistics.The main findings of the study were drawn from the mean of means obtained from the various research questions. The mean of means obtained on the various research questions showed Social Studies teachers possessed technological knowledge, content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, technological content knowledge, technological pedagogical knowledge as well as technological pedagogical content knowledge. Also, the study revealed that there is no statistical significant difference between the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) of professional and non-professional Social Studies teachers in the Kumasi Metropolis.It is recommended that the Curriculum Research and Development Division (CRDD) should review the content of Social Studies to make it suitable for technological unification. Also, technological integration course among Social Studies teachers should be developed and mounted within our teacher training institutions