Abstract:
The study sought to ascertain primary school teachers’ knowledge of differentiation,
assess teachers’ pedagogical practices of differentiation, teachers’ assessment
practices of DI and to determine how supportive the primary schools’ learning
environments are of differentiation. A mixed method survey research design was
employed to investigate Ghanaian primary school teachers’ knowledge and practices
of Differentiated Instruction. A sample of 100 primary school teachers from Kwabre
East District was selected for the study, from which a sub-sample of 15 teachers were
selected for classroom observation and interview. A questionnaire and a structured
observation were used to collect quantitative data on teachers’ knowledge and
practices while a semi-structured interview was used to collect qualitative data. The
descriptive statistics function of the SPSS was used to organize the quantitative data
into frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviations where as the qualitative
was analysed using thematic narrative approach. The findings indicated that the
teachers variably possessed low to a higher level of knowledge on the aspects of
differentiation. Teachers’ level of knowledge were higher on process (M = 32.90, SD
of 5.22), product/ assessment (M = 22.13, SD of 3.24) and learner diversity (M =
20.08, SD of 3.40) but average on learner interest (M = 15.81, SD = 2.32) and
learning environment (M =15.78, SD = 5.60) and lower on lesson planning (M =
13.97, SD = 2.78), general theories (M = 13.92, SD = 3.53), content (M = 12.47, SD =
2.30) and learning styles (M = 11.02, SD = 2.56).The findings further revealed that
although there were traces of good pedagogical practices in the teachers’ instruction,
they taught to the middle. The primary school teachers scarcely differentiated
instruction to address the learning needs of their learners. The teachers employed the
traditional forms of assessment instead of alternative assessment strategies that
addressed different learner needs. Also, almost all the primary school learning
environments poorly supported differentiation. The study recommended that
differentiation should be introduced to teachers and they should be supported to
employ and practice it in their instruction.
Description:
A Thesis in the Department of Basic Education, Faculty of Educational Studies,
Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, University of Education, Winneba
in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for Award of Master of Philosophy
(Basic Education) Degree.
JULY, 2015.