ERIC Number: EJ1354843
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Sep
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0033-1538
EISSN: EISSN-1573-9090
Shifting Teachers' Practice in Early Mathematics Classrooms in Ghana: A Case Study
Sitabkhan, Yasmin; Ampadu, Ernest
Prospects, v52 n1-2 p157-171 Sep 2022
Changing teachers' practice is difficult, especially in low- and middle-income contexts (LMIC). Recently, with attention turning to improving early mathematics in addition to reading outcomes, donors, governments, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are grappling with the design of mathematics interventions and supportive policies. However, there is limited evidence showing how to change teachers' practices in early mathematics classrooms in LMIC. For this exploratory study, the authors provided 15 kindergarten teachers in Ghana with sequenced mathematics activities, with some teachers receiving low-cost manipulatives (e.g., bottle-cap counters and number cards), and other teachers being asked to create or gather their own. The findings showed that teachers who were given the manipulatives were much more likely than teachers not given the manipulatives to use the activities provided. In addition, the character of the instruction was qualitatively different for teachers who were given the manipulatives. These results, while exploratory, suggest the need for classroom sets of manipulatives when designing an intervention that aims to change teachers' practices.
Descriptors: Mathematics Instruction, Teaching Methods, Case Studies, Instructional Materials, Educational Change, Educational Improvement, Kindergarten, Preschool Teachers, Intervention, Foreign Countries
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education; Kindergarten; Primary Education; Preschool Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Ghana
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A