A lecturer at the Department of Basic Education, Dr. Joyce Esi Tawiah, has
underscored the need for teachers to turn their classrooms into innovative environments
to bring out the best in their students.
According to her, teachers should do away with the one-way method of teaching where
students were forced to swallow hook, line and sinker approach of teaching which
defeats the implementation of the new standard curriculum introduced by the Ghana
Education Service.
“…Students come to school with fount of knowledge, but when they (come to school)
because of the one way nature of teaching, we take this knowledge from them and we
try to give them ours. If we make teaching and learning interactive, students will learn
from teachers, teachers will learn from students” she said.
Dr. Tawiah was speaking at a training workshop for teachers in Adopted Low
Performing Schools in the Central Region on the topic, “The Current Curriculum and its
Effective Implementation”
The workshop was aimed at building the capacities of the teachers with the right
A section of the participants
The workshop was organised by the Centre for Teacher Professional Development and
the Department of Business and Social Science Education of the University of Cape
Coast.
Dr. Joyce Esi Tawiah urged teachers to embrace Creative Pedagogy to promote a
creative teaching methodology and creative learning environment, as well as to
inculcate in learners the passion for lifelong learning.
To implement Creative Pedagogy in the classroom, she explained the importance of
Project-Based instruction to teachers to ensure their students were problem solvers.
“In their quest to solving problems, learners investigate, explore, research and engage
in small collaborative groups. This type of learning helps learners gain the skills and the
motivation needed to succeed in the complex world” Dr. Tawiah added.
She mentioned Think-Pair-Share, Brainstorming/Game storming, Board Rotation, as
well as Roll and Read, Write and Explain as some of the strategies for enacting
Creative Pedagogy.
The Director of Centre for Teacher Professional Development, Dr. Bernard Sekyi
Acquah, in his welcome address, said the Departments in the College of Education
Studies had adopted low performing schools in the Cape Coast Metropolis to ensure
students take their studies seriously to perform honourably in the Basic Education
Certificate Examination.
According to him, a base was conducted by the College and the finding was that
teachers in the Adopted Low Performing Schools were facing difficulties in
implementing the Standard Based Curriculum.
Hence, the workshop was part of the measures taken by the College to deal with the challenges facing teachers.
The workshop was also attended by School Improvement Support Officers, Chief
Monitors, as well as Head teachers.
The beneficiary schools were Effutu Mampong Basic School, St. Cyprian Anglican Basic
School at Effutu and Philip Quaicoo Boys Basic School in Cape Coast.
Source: Documentation and Information Section-UCC
