News Desk
Ghana’s curriculum reforms must go beyond changes in content organisation and lesson-planning formats to transform actual teaching and learning experiences in classrooms, educationist and mathematics educator Francis K. A. Baccah has argued.
In an article titled “Is Innovative Teaching and Learning Pedagogy Missing in Ghana’s Modern Curriculum? Beyond Curriculum Reorganisation to Transformative Teaching and Learning,” Baccah questions whether curriculum reforms have sufficiently changed how teachers teach and learners acquire knowledge.
He notes that although revised curriculum structures and learner-centred approaches are intended to improve educational outcomes, teachers may continue to rely heavily on explanations, note-taking, exercises and assessments despite adopting new planning formats.
According to him, curriculum reform should be assessed not only by what is contained in official documents but also by the quality of learning experiences created in classrooms.
Baccah acknowledges the value of conventional teaching methods but argues that they should not dominate every learning situation. He says education should equip learners to think critically, solve problems, communicate ideas, collaborate and apply knowledge to real-life situations.
He also raises concerns about the potential loss of conceptual depth when teachers focus on completing prescribed content without giving learners sufficient time to understand and connect related concepts.
Using mathematics as an example, he explains that topics such as sets, operations, algebraic expressions and number systems require learners to explore relationships between concepts rather than encounter them as isolated units.
The article further questions why enjoyable and interactive learning experiences common in preschool often diminish as learners advance to higher levels of education.
Baccah argues that academic rigour should not require the abandonment of creativity, storytelling, movement, performance and practical activities. Instead, he advocates teaching approaches that combine meaningful engagement with demanding intellectual tasks.
He identifies Verse Pedagogy (VP), developed under Transformative Poetic Education (TPE), as one potential approach to supporting this transformation.
The framework seeks to connect expressive and interactive learning with conceptual understanding, practice and reflection through six stages: Enjoy, Discover, Explore, Practice, Connect and Reflect.
Under this approach, songs, rhymes, movement and familiar community experiences could serve as starting points for exploring academic concepts. For instance, learners could use counting songs to identify number patterns, manipulate objects to represent quantities and create their own verses to explain mathematical ideas.
Baccah also highlights the importance of recognising Ghana’s linguistic and cultural diversity in classroom teaching. He argues that learners’ home languages, community experiences and cultural practices can provide useful resources for connecting formal education with everyday life.
He cautions, however, that Verse Pedagogy should not be presented as a proven universal solution. Its effectiveness in improving conceptual understanding, retention, participation and learning outcomes requires systematic research and evaluation.
The article calls for stronger links between curriculum design and pedagogy, greater emphasis on conceptual understanding, continued use of age-appropriate interactive learning, inclusive teaching practices and practical professional development for teachers.
It also urges education stakeholders to evaluate innovative approaches using evidence rather than relying solely on enthusiasm or assumptions about their effectiveness.
Baccah concludes that Ghana’s educational challenge is not simply whether the country has a modern curriculum, but whether that curriculum is supported by flexible, inclusive and evidence-informed teaching approaches that help learners understand more deeply and apply knowledge effectively.
Francis K. A. Baccah is an educationist, researcher, mathematics educator and developer of Verse Pedagogy.
Source: www.thenewindependentonline.com