Content area
Teachers are key actors in curriculum change, and their learning at such times is crucial. However, this critical aspect is often neglected in curriculum reforms, especially in Africa. This thesis explores science teacher professional learning at a time of significant curriculum reform in Ghana. A key aspect of the reform intends to change teaching from dominant teacher-centred pedagogies to more student-centred approaches. This is something that has proven difficult to achieve in many African countries. The aim of the study was to explore possibilities of aligning the intended curriculum with the implemented curriculum, using a Change Laboratory approach to foster teachers’ professional learning. The study design was a qualitative formative intervention grounded within the theoretical framework of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT). Six Change Laboratory sessions were conducted with six junior high school science teachers in the Sefwi Wiawso Municipality of Ghana. The Change Laboratory sessions were complemented by two interviews with each teacher (before and after the Change Laboratory), six focus group with students, and 18 lesson observations over three months.
The analysis drew on three key aspects of CHAT: systemic contradictions, double stimulation (specifically, Sannino’s recent framework of transformative agency by double stimulation, or TADS) and Anne Edwards’ concept of common knowledge. Secondary contradictions between components of the science teaching activity system were identified including between the tools and object where perceived lack of resources led teachers to feel it was impossible to foster active students’ engagement in science lessons.
Regarding TADS, the key conflict of motives experienced by the teachers was a clash between teaching in a more engaging manner to realise the intended curriculum, and the motive to maintain the status quo of transmissive teaching to ensure curriculum coverage. The main auxiliary motive that enabled the teachers to escape this conflict of motive was to teach in a way that aligned with what matters to students.
themes were identified to understand what matters to students. These were engagement and interestedness, support and attention, applicability and connectedness. The participating teachers’ understanding of these things that matters to students became common knowledge, serving as a resource for transforming their teaching practice.
Together, these processes produced four significant changes in the teachers practices that brought their practices into closer alignment with more student-centred nature of the intended curriculum. These focused on the use of questioning, assessment, teaching beyond the classroom, and designing a range of activities.
The study contributes to knowledge in three key areas. The first key area is an empirical contribution as this study is among the first in Africa to show how science teachers can develop their own solutions to key challenges in curriculum reforms when provided with opportunities to collaborate and explore ideas that work in their own classrooms. Previous studies have highlighted challenges and barriers to effective teaching and learning of science in Africa. This study is novel as it shows how the challenge can be overcome when what matters to students is folded in as key aspect of developing more student-centred pedagogies.
The second is a theoretical contribution to the literature on agency in CHAT where two different frameworks have been brought into dialogue. These frameworks are TADS and relational agency, where the study established that common knowledge can be crucial in addressing the conflict of motives in the TADS framework. These frameworks have not been integrated in this way previously.
The third contribution is methodological in nature. Change Laboratories usually involve a group of people working together in the same institution. This study adapted the Change Laboratory to suit the Ghanaian science teaching context, where teachers often teach alone as a science teacher in their school. The study brought teachers from different schools to collaboratively design solutions and apply them to meet their own classroom conditions. The key recommendations from this study are as follows. Teachers’ understanding of what matters to students can be powerful in enabling them to tailor their instructional strategies and develop more student-centred pedagogies. Furthermore, teachers need to be provided with effective professional development that offer them the opportunities to collaboratively develop their own solutions to bring transformation in their practice. Finally, it is suggested that research on science education in Africa should adopt more solution-oriented to address some of the challenges in science education, and that CHAT provides a relevant theoretical and methodological framework for doing so.