Teachers’ knowledge and practices of differentiated instruction in mathematics in Mampong municipality

Abstract

The study sought to investigate the knowledge and practice of differentiated instruction by primary school teachers in the Mampong municipality of Ghana. The study employed a sequential explanatory design within the mixed method approach. The study employed stratified sampling technique to select a sample of 135 primary school teachers from Mampong municipality of Ghana for the quantitative study and from which 9 teachers were selected for the qualitative study. The researcher used questionnaire to collect the quantitative data whiles the qualitative data were collected using observational schedules and semi-structured interviews. The study used descriptive statistics involving frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviation to analyze responses from the questionnaire with the help of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The qualitative data on the other hand were analysed using thematic approach. The findings of the study revealed that most of the participants were knowledgeable of differentiated instruction in spite of the fact that there was little evidence of the practice the concept and most participants scarcely teach to address individual differences during instructional hours. The findings also revealed that time, class size and lack of logistics made the implementation of differentiated instruction difficult. The study recommends that teacher educators tune the curriculum to encourage teacher trainees to practice differentiated instruction. The study also recommends frequent organisation of professional development courses related to differentiated instruction by the Ghana Education Service and headteachers to equip teachers with the necessary skills to differentiate instruction and also make it possible for at least two trained teachers to be in each classroom to reduce the workload on teachers. The study suggests that further studies might be conducted to investigate the practice of differentiated instruction, using the pupils as participants instead of the teachers.