Predictability of Instructional Quality on Teacher Effectiveness in the Preparation of Teachers at the College of Distance Education University of Cape Coast

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of instructional quality on trainee-teacher effectiveness in the delivery of Distance Education (DE) in Ghana, focusing on College of Distance Education, University of Cape Coast (CoDE, UCC). The descriptive survey design was adopted with a quantitative approach. Total population involving 1,837 CoDE course tutors and all CoDE students at all the 76 study centres offering education programmes totalling 51,456 was used. The sample size for the study was 726, made up of 397 trainee-teachers and 329 course tutors. The proportionate stratified random sampling approach was employed to select respondents who completed the questionnaire instruments. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. The results revealed that pedagogical quality and quality evaluation were the dimensions of instructional quality that were highly perceived by trainee-teachers of the college. The study showed that, whenever trainee-teachers demonstrate high level of competence in terms of subject matter knowledge, lesson presentation skills, class management and control and lesson note preparation, they increase the extent to which their level of teaching meets pre-specified standards and goals of the college. It was recommended from the study that management of the college should put in place appropriate support services in all the study centres to guide both tutors and students on appropriate instructional behaviours.