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 Physics 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 Physics able to diagnose problems of teaching and learning, and introduce innovative practices that can lead to significant improvements in the learning experiences of all Physics 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 Physics, 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

Physics is one of the science disciplines which has impact on innovation in industry. The subject plays a major role in the transfer of technology from the classroom to industry. Technological knowhow, however, cannot be absorbed by industry without effort. Physics education empowers science students to engage in scientific research aimed at developing and testing theories, particularly in matter and light in order to understand why certain phenomena occur.

Once this understanding has been gained, predictions for untried experiments are made possible and this usually leads to new inventions. Laser devices which have now become core technology in instruments performing vital functions in many industries was developed through physics experiments. Physics educators have the opportunity to work directly with industry to facilitate inventions in industry. As a result, physicists including physics teachers are held in high esteem.

TUITION METHODS

Class discussions, presentations, seminars and workshops.

CAREER PROSPECTS

Graduates from this programme could be employed to teach senior high school Physics. The programme also provides a strong foundation for a diverse range of career opportunities at a time of rapid change in education, including managerial and administrative roles in schools and local authorities; work in secondary school settings; careers in scientific research and a range of professions.

ASSESSMENT

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