Investigating teachers’ knowledge and practices of differentiated instruction in Ghanaian primary schools

Abstract

The study sought to ascertain primary school teachers’ knowledge of differentiation, assess teachers’ pedagogical practices of differentiation, teachers’ assessment practices of DI and to determine how supportive the primary schools’ learning environments are of differentiation. A mixed method survey research design was employed to investigate Ghanaian primary school teachers’ knowledge and practices of Differentiated Instruction. A sample of 100 primary school teachers from Kwabre East District was selected for the study, from which a sub-sample of 15 teachers were selected for classroom observation and interview. A questionnaire and a structured observation were used to collect quantitative data on teachers’ knowledge and practices while a semi-structured interview was used to collect qualitative data. The descriptive statistics function of the SPSS was used to organize the quantitative data into frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviations where as the qualitative was analysed using thematic narrative approach. The findings indicated that the teachers variably possessed low to a higher level of knowledge on the aspects of differentiation. Teachers’ level of knowledge were higher on process (M = 32.90, SD of 5.22), product/ assessment (M = 22.13, SD of 3.24) and learner diversity (M = 20.08, SD of 3.40) but average on learner interest (M = 15.81, SD = 2.32) and learning environment (M =15.78, SD = 5.60) and lower on lesson planning (M = 13.97, SD = 2.78), general theories (M = 13.92, SD = 3.53), content (M = 12.47, SD = 2.30) and learning styles (M = 11.02, SD = 2.56).The findings further revealed that although there were traces of good pedagogical practices in the teachers’ instruction, they taught to the middle. The primary school teachers scarcely differentiated instruction to address the learning needs of their learners. The teachers employed the traditional forms of assessment instead of alternative assessment strategies that addressed different learner needs. Also, almost all the primary school learning environments poorly supported differentiation. The study recommended that differentiation should be introduced to teachers and they should be supported to employ and practice it in their instruction.