Impact of in-service training on junior high school science teachers’ self- efficacy beliefs and content knowledge competencies in basic electronics in Kassena Nankana Municipal

Abstract

Many students with good favourable attitudes and high interest in science soon see these qualities eroded by their experience of school science; some resulting from science teachers‟ low level of content knowledge, poor methods of teaching and exhibition of low levels of self-efficacies. One topical area in science content that Junior High Schools (JHS) science teachers‟ exhibit lack of interest and poor attitudes is in JHS basic electronics. This is because many of them did not receive adequate tuition in basic electronics during pre-service and in-service training programmes. This study therefore, was to determine the level of influence that in-service training workshop have on JHS science teachers‟ self-efficacy beliefs and content knowledge competencies towards JHS basic electronics. The study involved 7 females and 39 males JHS science teachers in Kassena Nankana Municipal. Two sets of data were collected, one in December 2014 and another in January 2015, using pre-workshop questionnaires and post-workshop questionnaires respectively. Each data was a measure of these JHS Science teachers‟ self-efficacy beliefs and content knowledge competencies towards JHS basic electronics. The two sets of data were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively; using inferential t-test analysis for paired (dependent) samples. The findings of the study showed that before the in- service training science teachers had moderate self-efficacy beliefs towards basic electronics but developed high self-efficacy beliefs towards basic electronics after the in-service training. The study further showed that, after the in-service training JHS science teachers‟ had a high content knowledge competencies as compared to the low content knowledge competencies exhibited before the in-service training. Again, the difference in post workshop and pre-workshop content knowledge competencies is statistically significant (t(45) = 16.477, p = 0.000). Nonetheless, there was a weak correlation University of Education,Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh xiv between science teachers‟ post-workshop self-efficacy and post-workshop content knowledge competencies (r = 0.0257, p = 0.287). The findings suggests that regular and continual in-service training targeting specific sensitive challenging content areas in JHS basic electronics can assist teachers to develop coping abilities to teach that content area and meet the specific task needs of pupils. Therefore, JHS science teachers‟ education programs should promote continual teacher development in basic electronics to meet teachers‟ performance and pupils‟ achievement needs.