Abstract:
The purpose of the study was to identify Primary school teacher’s in-service needs in
Science towards the implementation of the standards-based curriculum in the Kintampo
North Municipality of the Bono East Region. The study employed Sequential
Explanatory Mixed Method Design with a sample of 240 primary school teachers. An
adapted Science Inventory of Needs (STIN) and interview guide was used to seek their
prevalent in-service needs. The questionnaire had six dimensions, namely management
of science instruction, diagnosing and evaluating students, generic pedagogical
knowledge and skills, knowledge and skills in science subjects, administrating science
instructional facilities and equipment and planning science instruction. Descriptive
statistics, thematic analysis and Chi square test were used to analyse the data. The
results indicated that the highest rated prevalent in-service needs were generic
pedagogical knowledge and skills and planning science instruction with diagnosing and
evaluating students as the least. The Chi square tests, conducted at the 0.05 level of
significance, showed that there were statistical differences between urban teachers’ inservice
needs in favour of the Primary school teachers from rural schools in science for
knowledge and skills in science subjects, administering science instructional facilities
and equipment, planning activities in science instruction and school location, gender
has influence on the perceived professional development needs of primary school
teachers. The male teachers expressed more need for professional development than
their female counterpart. The study recommended among others that for an effective
professional development, the organisers assess prevalent in-service needs of the
teachers before planning to solicit the teachers’ participation and for meaningful
professional development programme.
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Basic Education, School of
Education and Life-Long Learning, submitted to the School of
Graduate Studies, in partial fulfilment
of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Master of Philosophy
(Basic Education)
in the University of Education, Winneba