UEW Hosts Workshop on Global Best Practices in Teaching STEM
The University of Education, Winneba (UEW), has hosted a weeklong workshop on the theme “Global Best Practices in the Teaching and Learning of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM): Enhancing Ghanaian Science Teachers’ Capacity”.
The workshop, which took place at the Student Centre Seminar Room III, North Campus, UEW, was a collaboration between the Africa Centre of Excellence for Innovative and Transformative STEM Education (ACEITSE), Lagos State University, and the Institute for Educational Research and Innovation Studies (IERIS), UEW.
Participants were taken through global best practices in the teaching of geometry, heredity, respiratory system, spreadsheets, atom, electronics, magnetism, computational thinking, algebra, acids, bases, and salts. The five-day workshop also gave participants insight into contextualising the teaching of STEM in African schools, improvising instructional materials in STEM, assessment and evaluation in STEM, and scientific attitude and laboratory skills.
Chairing the opening ceremony on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor of UEW, Prof. Mawutor Avoke, the Director of IERIS, Prof. Ephraim Avea Nsoh, expressed the Vice-Chancellor’s pleasure about collaborating in an area very critical to the country. He charged participants to make use of whatever they would learn at the workshop to transform their classroom situation to bring the change that the nation had always been looking forward to in respect of STEM education.
Professor at the Lagos State University and co-chairman for the workshop, Prof. Rasheed Sanni, revealed that the workshop was carefully planned to benefit African teachers, particularly those in Ghana and the Effutu Municipality. He assured the workshop will be a constant feature to strengthen teachers.
“I want to thank and also plead with you to make maximum benefit of this workshop. There are a lot of things we have put in place and our pride or success will be in what amount of drive we have been able to take away and how well will we be able to use what we have been able to take away to better the lives of the students that we teach in our various schools,” he said.
The Effutu Municipal Director of Education, Mrs. Mabel Judith Micah, on her part, underscored the fundamental role of education in the socio-economic transformation of every society.
She called on both government and management of pre-tertiary and tertiary institutions to work closely with the private sector to promote internships, graduate trainee programmes, and community-based projects that create jobs for young people, especially in the science and technology domains.
Mrs. Judith Micah advocated for a comprehensive policy on technical and vocational education in STEM.
Prof. Mawuadem Amedeker, Prof. Kolawole Raheem, Dr. (Mrs.) Esenam Anor, Mrs. Nelly Sakyi-Hagan, Mr. Ahmed Amihere and Mrs. Rebecca Quansah were the resource persons who enlightened the basic and secondary school teachers on the global best practices in the teaching and learning of STEM.
