Accra, Dec. 14, GNA – The African Science Academy (ASA) has held a Maths Masterclass in Accra with a call on participants to use the knowledge acquired to improve students’ performance in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
The programme, which was the maiden masterclass, was designed to share and broaden the knowledge of Senior High School (SHS) mathematics teachers to enable them to come up with more practical and engaging ways to teach the subject.
It was supported by Tullow Oil and the Ghana Society for Education Technology.
A statement issued jointly by Mrs Gifty Ghansah, Head Teacher of ASA and Miss Ethel Ashong-Nuga, the Executive Assistant of Ghana Society for Education Technology, said 43 mathematics teachers from the Eastern Region attended the event.
It said ASA birthed the Maths Masterclass in 2017 to provide free professional development sessions for SHS maths instructors across the country.
The statement said the event had been held in five regions since its inception.
According to the statement, ASA is an all-girls school dedicated to advancing the study of STEM all over Ghana.
“We intend to play a transformative role in the educational life of over 1600 Eastern Region high school students via their educators’ application of shared mathematics knowledge,” it said.
The participants discussed assessment for learning, effective mathematics teaching and learning strategies; and how technology can improve engagement and enjoyment of the subject.
They also learned diverse ways of providing feedback to their students without discouraging them and how to share the various ways of assessing their students to make an informed and consistent judgment to help the student steadily improve.
It said the discussion further drove home the fact that each student was unique so one assessment skill may not be tailored to fit all of them and that with knowledge of the types of purpose for each assessment.
“The teachers also shared the advantages of these assessment types to both themselves and their students,” it added.
The statement said the mathematics teachers were introduced to some mathematical online STEM applications, which would go a long way to make teaching and learning easier for students and teachers.
These online applications include GeoGebra, Khanacademy, Wolfram alpha, Desmos and Symbolab.
GNA/BM/CA