The Effectiveness of Supported Teaching in Schools in Colleges of Education Curriculum: The Facts, Fears and Myths

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to deep dive into how effective Colleges of Education (COE) in Ghana practice the Supported Teaching Schools (STS) programme; the challenges faced in implementing the programme; and how the challenges are managed by COE to still train pre-service teachers to exhibit high standards in knowledge, conduct, and practice in the schools worthy of 21st-century teachers. A trend study was adopted with an exploratory design. A stratified sampling technique was employed to select 6 Colleges and a meta-analysis on 60 pre-service teachers’ reflective journals for the study. It can therefore be concluded that pre-service teachers practice sole visits to schools for STS programme. Therefore, the pre-service teachers' reflective journals contain literature reports that might not necessarily reflect the activities observed or discussed. Some COE lack means of transport to convey pre-service teachers to and from partner schools. It is therefore recommended that, STS programme be organized for pre-service teachers to benefit from all the days' of teaching and learning, and co-curricular activities in a week in the basic schools. Training for all lead mentors, mentors and students to successfully implement the STS policy should be deepened. Also, the government of Ghana should supply the requisite logistics to COE for the successful implementation of the programme. Supervision by tutors of COE should be structured and intensified to pre-service teachers during the STS programme to make their reflective journals report to cohere into practicable daily school activities.