An assessment of academic learning time of lessons taught by trained and untrained Physical Education teachers in Senior High Schools of Akim Oda District

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess academic learning time of lessons taught by trained and untrained physical education teachers in Senior High Schools of Akim Oda District . The main objectives were to find out what phase of the practical lesson, (based on the instrument) did trained and untrained physical education teachers spend much time (highest time) and the disparities that persisted based on each sub-component of academic learning time in physical education interval recording instrument designed by Siedentop, Tousignant and Parker (1982). Descriptive survey research design was used and the sample encompassed three trained and three untrained physical education teachers. Simple random sampling procedure was used to select the three trained physical education teachers and purposive sampling was also used to choose the only three untrained physical education teachers for the study. One student in each lesson was targeted to represent highly skilled, average skilled and low skilled and the data collected were analysed using percentages in tables for the individual trained and untrained physical education teachers, mean percentage (average) time for the three trained teachers and the three untrained teachers and bar charts. The average findings indicated that, trained teachers devoted the much time of 22.3% for warm-up in the general content sub-component 11.4% for technique in the subject matter knowledge sub-component, and 27.7% for skill practice in the subject matter motor content sub-components. Meanwhile, untrained teachers devoted much time of 13.1% for warm-up in the general content sub-component, 8.9% for strategy in the subject matter knowledge sub-component and 26.5% for skill practice in the subject matter motor content, all in the context level. Most importantly, trained physical education teachers spent the highest time (much time) of 61.0% for on-task, 2.4% for off-task and 13.0% for waiting while untrained physical education teachers spent much time of 37.5% for off-task, 19.6% for on-task and 22.5% for waiting. Finally, trained physical education teachers devoted 21.1% for appropriate as the much time (highest time) spent in motor engaged sub-components while untrained physical education teachers also spent 8.7% as the much time devoted. The researcher suggested that in-service training should be organized termly for the P.E. teachers by Ghana Education Service in collaboration with physical education lecturers in Ghana.