Pre-service Teachers’ Motivational Orientations and the Impact of Self-Regulated Learning on their Academic Achievement: A Mixed Method Study.

This convergent parallel mixed methods study investigated pre-service teachers’ motivation and self-regulation learning and its impact on their academic achievement during their professional training in colleges of education. In addition, the contributory factors of beliefs and values that lay behind some pre-service teachers’ motivational orientations were examined through episodic narratives. The multi-stage sampling technique was used in selecting 500 teacher trainees from 40 residential colleges of education in Ghana and data sources included surveys, archival and interview data. The results from the study indicated that taken as a set, the motivation component of pre-service teachers’ self-regulation learning construct mediated the relationship between prior performances (entry aggregates) and academic achievement (GPA). The learning strategies component intervened significantly in the influence of prior performance on academic achievement. In the final model, prior performance showed a moderately large indirect effect on academic achievement through ten out of the fifteen variables of the self-regulation learning construct. The research findings indicated that desirable attributes such as critical thinking, metacognitive strategy use, and students’ value for task on the courses on the teacher training programme were non-existing and did not predict pre-service teachers’ academic performance in college. The pre-service teachers’ narratives suggested that family members and friends, instead of candidates themselves, played a significant role in their choice of colleges of education for training and accordingly the teaching profession; motivation was principally external and teaching was mainly perceived as a means of imparting knowledge to young ones. However, participants held some positive values such as recognizing diversity among children, collaborating with parents to achieve optimal learning for children and holding high the ethical principles of the teaching profession. This study provides an ecological and empirical foundation for the specification and explanation of the theoretical connections between pre-service teachers’ prior attainment, motivational orientations and self-regulation learning strategy use and their academic achievement in professional training context

Assessment in Preschools in Ghana: Issues and Challenges

This paper focuses on a very critical area, assessment in preschools in Ghana. It discusses the issues and challenges in Ghana’s early childhood education system. Educational Reforms since 1987 have advocated the inclusion of nursery and kindergarten education in the basic school system. In all of these reforms, especially that of 1987 and 2007, efforts were not made to critically look at establishing standards for the smooth running of such early childhood programmes. Also, assessment procedures to help in achieving the major purposes of the programme as introduced in some selected schools in 1987 and as a beginning point of Ghana’s education as stipulated in 2007 reforms were not clearly stated. It is on this note that the authors discuss the issues and the numerous challenges that have evolved in assessing young children between the ages of 3 and 8 years in Ghana’s education system. This paper, as a caveat from a discussant paper presented during a national conference in early childhood education in Ghana, addresses the issues of assessing young children by reviewing major purposes of assessment, action options to improve the system, challenges in assessing young children and recommendations for good practice. Keywords: preschool, early childhood, development appropriate assessment, educational reforms, standards

Readability Analyses of Integrated Science Textbooks for Junior High Schools in Ghana

This study investigated the readability levels of some integrated science textbooks approved for use in junior high schools (JHS) in Ghana. To assess the readability levels of the approved integrated science textbooks in order to ascertain their difficulty or ease, the researchers used the Flesch Readability Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Readability Formulas Cloze Test to determine the comprehension levels for a sample of students. A sample of 135 pupils, drawn from rural, peri-urban and urban JHS years 1 through 3 in the Ashanti region participated in the study. The outcome of the assessments revealed that the selected textbooks had a problematic level of comprehension for many of their intended readership except those who had additional resources for assistance. The study also revealed that these approved books employed long sentences and multi-syllabic words to deliver lessons and instructions, making them difficult for JHS pupils to understand

NTCP gene polymorphisms and hepatitis B virus infection status in a Ghanaian population

© 2020 The Author(s). Background: SLC10A1 gene codes NTCP, a receptor through which the hepatitis B virus (HBV) gets access into hepatocytes- A stage of the viral cycle necessary for replication. Polymorphism variants of SLC10A1 play roles in HBV infection, viral clearance, treatment outcome, and complications, in diverse ethnic groups and countries. However, no such study has been conducted in the Ghanaian population, a country with HBV endemicity. Therefore, an exploratory study was conducted to investigate the presence of three (3) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the SLC10A1 gene (rs2296651, rs61745930, and rs4646287) and assessed the risk of HBV infection among the Ghanaian population. Method: Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method was used to determine the presence of the SNPs among 292 participants comprising 146 HBV infected persons as case-subjects and 146 HBV non-infected persons as control-subjects. Results: The minor allele frequency (T) of rs2296651 was present in a significantly high proportion of cases compared with the control group (11.6% vs. 3.1%, p \u3c 0.0001). The homozygote recessive variant of rs61745930 was present in 2.7% of the control group and 5.5% of the case group. Moreover, the minor allele frequencies of rs4646287 were 9.3 and 8.2% among the control and the case group, respectively (p = 0.767). Under the dominant (CC) genetic model of inheritance, rs2296651 was found to be protective of HBV infection [OR = 0.18 (0.07-0.44)], whereas under the co-dominant and additive model, rs2296651 was a potential risk factor for HBV infection [OR = 5.2 (95%CI: 2.1-12.8); 3.5 (95%CI: 1.6-7.6], respectively. Variants of rs61745930 and rs4646287 were not associated with HBV infection (p \u3e 0.05). Polymorphisms in SLC10A1, however, did not show any significant association with HBV infectivity (p \u3e 0.05). Conclusion: The study highlights some polymorphism proof that variants rs2296651, rs61745930, and rs4646287 exist in HBV-infected individuals in Ghana. Although variant rs2296651 was found to be associated with HBV infection, this association warrants more studies. Polymorphisms in SLC10A1 were not associated with HBV infectivity among the Ghanaian population. Further investigation is warranted to assess the offensive role of the relationship between rs2296651 and HBV infectivity

Prevalence and risk factors of obesity among undergraduate student population in Ghana: An evaluation study of body composition indices

Background: Obesity is a classified risk factor for several of the world’s leading causes of death. In this study, we combined information contained in body mass index (BMI), total percentage body fat (TPBF) and relative fat mass (RFM) to estimate obesity prevalence and examine the risk factors associated with obesity. Methods: The study recruited 1027 undergraduate students aged between 16 and 25 years using a cross-sectional study design and two-stage stratified random sampling between January and April 2019 from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. Demographic, lifestyle, and family history of chronic disease data, were collected using a structured questionnaire. Bioelectrical impedance, along with height, weight, age, and gender, were used to estimate BMI and TPBF. The RFM was calculated using a published equation. The TPBF and RFM ranges were evaluated based on standard BMI thresholds and an informative combined obesity prevalence estimated in a Bayesian framework. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate potential risk factors of overweight/obesity. Results: Concordance between BMI, TPBF and RFM for obesity classification was 84% among female and 82.9% among male students. The Bayesian analysis revealed a combined prevalence means of obesity of 9.4% (95%CI: 6.9-12.2%) among female students and 6.7% (95%CI:4.3-9.5%) among male students. The odds of obesity were increased between 1.8 and 2.5 for females depending on the classification index. A significant increasing trend of obesity was observed with university-level. A family history of obesity was associated with a high estimate of general, central, and high TPBF. Conclusion: Using multiple adiposity indicators conjointly in a Bayesian framework offers a greater power to examine obesity prevalence. We have applied this and reported high obesity prevalence, especially among female students. University level and family history of obesity were key determinants for obesity among the student population

An Implicit Analysis of the Prevalence of Test Anxiety among Preservice Teachers

This unique study, which was carried out in an area that seemed under researched, collected data from 100 female preservice teachers in a college of education in Ghana on the actual sources and protest-march of test anxiety among trainee teachers, considering the peculiar position teachers occupy in the learning chain. Data were collected by using an adapted version of the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) developed by Spielberger and Vagg. A key finding is that, external agents such as future job security tend to be the major source of trainees’ test anxiety, which is at variance with what literature seems to suggest that students who experience test anxiety tend to be the type of people who put a lot of pressure on themselves to perform well. The findings seem to suggest that, tests in themselves do not stimulate anxiety but the premium and how high the stakes are for the test, tend to kindle anxious moments for preservice teachers

Influence of accountability pressure on Science, Mathematics and English Language teachers’ classroom practices in senior high schools in Ghana: Influence of accountability pressure on Science, Mathematics and English Language teachers’ classroom practices in senior high schools in Ghana

In this study I investigated the sources and influence of accountability pressure on science, mathematics and English language teachers, and suggested ways teachers could better adapt their teaching without yielding to teaching to the test practices with its resultant narrowing of the curriculum. The research was conducted within the midlands of Ghana (Ashanti Region) with a cosmopolitan feature. High schools in the Region attract students from all parts of the nation and nearby regions in West Africa. A large sample of teachers (N = 251), made up of 208 males and 43 females were involved in the study. The distributions of teachers in the three core subjects were 87, 88 and 76 for science, English language and mathematics respectively. In this study, the researcher analysed the sources and effects of accountability threats to the various aspects of science, English language and mathematics teachers’ practices in the classroom with means, standard deviations and ANOVA. In the findings, there was pressure on teachers in the three subject categories to increase the performance of students in WAEC examinations. These pressures often came from school administrators, students and parents. It is recommended that school administrators should focus attention on holistic supervision of teachers to develop a well-informed and educated citizenry instead of leading teachers to achieving students’ gains in performance in external examinations. Also, teachers have to be self-efficacious in their day-to-day practices in the classroom and develop proactive attitudes to learning in students rather than drilling and prepping them on test preparation practices