Science Tutors’ Knowledge of Differentiated Instruction in Colleges of Education in Volta Region, Ghana

The purpose of the study was to explore science tutors’ knowledge of differentiated instruction in the Colleges of Education in the Volta Region of Ghana. The study employed sequential explanatory design. The participants were 32 science tutors from Colleges of Education in the Volta Region of Ghana, who were purposively selected on the basis of having direct instructional contacts with students all the time and their teaching experiences within and outside colleges. Questionnaire, Rating Scale and Interview were used to collect data. It was found that science tutors have different knowledge on content, learning style, learner interest, learner diversity, process, product and lesson planning. The findings also revealed that majority (80%) of science tutors who did not differentiate instruction in their classrooms have the knowledge of differentiated instruction but their failure to make use of DI was due to scarcity of time, complex nature of DI, high level of workload. The results also revealed that, majority (80%) of the science tutors did not use their assessment feedback to guide their instruction. These science tutors said marking schemes were always given to the students for self-correction. The results from classroom observation showed that these tutors do not teach to meet the diverse needs of learners. Majority of the participants still hold to traditional classroom teaching strategies based on one size-fits-all approach which proved to be ineffective. The study recommended that mentoring universities should organize workshops on the differentiated instructional for tutors and mount course in DI for student teachers

Junior High School Science Teachers’ Knowledge, Practice and Challenges of Differentiated Instruction in Kpandai District, Ghana

This study investigated knowledge practice and challenges of Junior High School Science teachers in Differentiated Instruction (DI) in Kpandai District of the Northern Region of Ghana. The study employed the concurrent nested design. Out of 268 teachers, a sample size of 31 science teachers was drawn to participate in the study through questionnaire and a sub-sample of five teachers was purposively selected for interviews. The quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics while the qualitative data was analysed thematically. The study concluded that most JHS science teachers in Kpandai District possessed required knowledge on DI and they actually differentiated the instruction in their Science classes. However, they faced some challenges when differentiating their instructions. The study recommends that knowledge of DI possessed by most Science teachers should be strengthened through regularly organizing in-service training for them. This should be done by GES Directorate of Kpandai to enable the teachers improve their knowledge of DI. Teachers should be supported by SISOs to practice every aspect of DI especially when assessing the learners.  Finally, the government and other educational stakeholders should ensure that textbooks and other materials/resources are readily made available to Science teachers for effective implementation of DI in schools