Mathematics tutors’ level of participation in T-Tel professional development and their perceived self-efficacy beliefs to implement the bed Mathematics curriculum

Abstract

The study examined the level of participation of mathematics tutors in T-TEL professional development sessions (PDS) and their perceived self-efficacy beliefs to implement the new 4-year B.Ed. mathematics curriculum in the Colleges of Education in Northern Ghana. The study adopted the mixed methods survey approach that involves concurrent triangulation of data. The sample was made up of 39 participants comprising 37 male mathematics tutors and 2 female mathematics tutors, among which 5 male tutors and 2 female tutors were selected for interviews. Convenience, purposive, and simple random sampling were used to select the sample for the study. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected using the questionnaire and semi structured interview guide respectively. With the aid of the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21, the quantitative data were analyzed using percentages, means, and standard deviations while data collected from the interview guide were analyzed using the thematic narrative approach. A Pearson product moment correlation was run to determine the relationship between mathematics tutors’ level of participation in T-TEL PDS and their perceived self-efficacy beliefs to implement the new 4-year B.Ed. mathematics curriculum. Findings from the study revealed that mathematics tutors were mostly, punctual and regular to T-TEL PDS. Besides, the study established that both female and male mathematics tutors actively participated in, think-pair-share, group discussions and presentations and whole group discussions in learning the teaching strategies of the various themes. The findings also showed that, both female and male mathematics tutors actively participated and learnt gender and inclusivity issues and are implementing these concepts in their teaching as well. The study, however, indicated that the overall level of participation of tutors in T-TEL PDS was average. Again, it emerged from the findings that, generally, mathematics tutors’ perceived self-efficacy beliefs to implement the new 4-year B.Ed. mathematics curriculum were high. The study further disclosed that there was a positive statistically significant relationship between mathematics tutors’ level of participation in T-TEL PDS, and their perceived self-efficacy beliefs to implement the new 4-year B.Ed. mathematics curriculum. Based on these findings, it was recommended that the Ministry of Education, National Teaching Council, National Council for Tertiary Education, T-TEL and stakeholders in teacher education should put mechanisms in place for regular assessment of mathematics tutors’ implementation of the student-focused teaching methods, gender and inclusion teaching strategies and cross-cutting issues learnt during the T-TEL PDS in teaching in the new 4-year B.Ed. mathematics curriculum. Also, it was recommended that stakeholders in teacher education should assist PDCs and other mathematics tutors to organize the T-TEL PDS for existing basic school teachers to assist them acquire and use innovative student-focused teaching methods, gender and inclusion teaching strategies and cross-cutting issues in teaching mathematics in the basic schools.