An Assessment of Teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Christian Religious Studies

Abstract

The study sought to assess the technological pedagogical content knowledge of teachers of Christian Religious Studies in some selected Senior High Schools in the Central Region of Ghana. The convergent mixed method research design was adopted for the study. Using the census method, 72 final year CRS teachers were involved in the study. Questionnaire and observation guide were used to gather the requisite data for the study. The data was analysed using frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation. The study found out that the CRS teachers had a good content knowledge in the teaching of Christian Religious Studies. However, the CRS teachers were unfamiliar with a few of the contents of the Old Testament as well as the aims of teaching Christian Religious Studies. Also, although CRS teachers indicated that they used a number of pedagogies in teaching the subject, they did not have knowledge about various contemporary pedagogies for teaching Christian Religious Studies such as: life themes pedagogy, existential pedagogy, and the concept cracking pedagogy for the teaching of CRS. Again, the CRS teachers indicated that they had adequate technological knowledge but it was observed that they did not make use of the technological knowledge they claimed they possessed. The study recommended that, the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) should organise workshops for teachers to be abreast with some of these contemporary pedagogies for the teaching of CRS in Senior High Schools. Again, CRS teachers should teach lessons that appropriately combine CRS content, technologies, and the teaching approaches in their classroom.