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Amoah, Samuel Asare (2011) The reflective and collaborative practices of teachers in Ghanaian basic schools: a case study. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

With advances in using the teachers’ classroom as the foreground for teacher improvement, reflective and collaborative activities have been increasingly used in a variety of professional development contexts. It is widely held that reflective and collaborative activities are conducive to helping teachers to develop a positive attitude towards questioning their teaching for themselves and others as well as empowering them to have control over their professional development. It is in this view that I developed an intervention process to explore what happened, when teachers within one school were given an opportunity to engage in a planned series of critical dialogues relating to their own classroom teaching. The study also explored how the teachers use the Intervention Process to develop their thinking about their practices.

Using a case study approach, the IP that ‘sit’ in experimental research, action research which was more qualitative in nature was conducted in one school from, February 2007 to July 2007. Four mathematics teachers purposely and through theoretical sampling techniques were selected in a school considered to be a fair representative of basic schools in Ghana. The field research included interviews and reflective dialogue. Findings from the case study were presented and analyzed for their significance.

Key issues identified by the thesis include: the IP creating a conducive environment for reflective and collaborative practices, teachers developing rich and deep reflective dialogue, which provided them with opportunities to systematically and rigorously diagnosing their practices and socio-cultural influence in developing deeper discussions. In addition, the IP provided the participants’ with detailed ways of reflection.

Based on the evidence from the data, I have argued, among others, that the IP promoted individualised and collaborative learning. The prevailing socio-cultural elements in the immediate environment supported a rich and deep professional dialogue as a tool for understanding and dealing with on-the-spot professional problems and supporting critical thinking that includes taking account of social, political and cultural issues as a process to analyze competing claims and viewpoints. Recommendations for policy recommendation and potential areas for further research were also made.

Item Type:	Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (PhD)
Supervisors:	Murphy, R.J.L. Noyes, A.J.
Subjects:	L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1705 Education of teachers
Faculties/Schools:	UK Campuses > Faculty of Social Sciences, Law and Education > School of Education
Item ID:	12021
Depositing User:	EP, Services
Date Deposited:	10 Nov 2011 14:38
Last Modified:	16 Dec 2017 07:04
URI:	https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/12021

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