OVERVIEW

Promoting effective science teaching and learning in Ghana has become an issue of immense concern. This has been necessitated by Ghanaian students’ poor performance at the national and international levels. Producing teachers and education practitioners who understand what it takes to improve quality education and manage its delivery effectively is often lacking.

The courses in this programme are designed to equip those who wish to begin a career in teaching Biology at the senior high level with skills to maximise student learning outcomes. The skills acquired will also be transferable to other levels and contexts of education, thus make students graduating from the School equipped to work as assessment design specialists and managers of educational change in general.

The programme desires to produce a unique educational practitioner with a specialisation in Biology able to diagnose problems of teaching and learning, and introduce innovative practices that can lead to significant improvements in the learning experiences of all Biology learners.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

• Provide research opportunities to explore and understand how education particularly in the Ghanaian context, mediate social equalities and inequalities

• Train students in Biology, pedagogy, conceptual and procedural knowledge

• Prepare students who will be conceptually and practically competent to facilitate the expectations accorded to science education in Ghanaian senior high schools.

• Develop the capacity of students to use ICT to enhance teaching and learning.

• Use data from school contexts to inform their practice through engagement in action research through the evaluation of education interventions and practices in the Ghanaian context.

• Develop an understanding of how effective schooling is achieved in diverse international contexts.

INDUSTRY/GLOBAL TRENDS

Biology is concerned with the scientific study of living organisms and plays a crucial role in the world of science not only because it is about the study of activities of all living things, but because it promotes actions that support life.With the help of biology, hundreds of millions of people, derive a significant part of their subsistence needs and income from gathered plant and animal products.

Biology lessons help students to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes for pursuing careers in medicine, pharmacy, nutrition and agriculture. It is because of these essential functions of biology that the study of the subject has become compulsory in school curricular in a world dominated by science and technology. Consequently, teachers of biology are needed in every school on the globe.

TUITION METHODS

Class discussions, presentations, seminars and workshops.

CAREER PROSPECTS

Graduates from this programme could be employed to teach senior high school Biology. The programme also provides a strong foundation for a diverse range of career opportunities at a time of rapid change in education, including research scienctist in schools and local authorities; work in secondary school settings; careers in sustainability consultancy; health sectors and a range of caring professions.

ASSESSMENT

Students are assessed through a combination of individual and group work, tests, assignments and projects and successful completion of supervised internship