By Christopher Tetteh
Sunyani, Oct. 04, GNA – Professor Ellis Owusu-Dabo, the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Pro VC) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has stressed the need for teaching and learning curriculum to be problem solving for sustainable growth of the Ghanaian economy.
“Current national situations were clear indications that problem-solving based curriculum for particularly secondary and tertiary education was needed to meet holistic development demands, he said”.
Prof. Owusu-Dabo made the call during the opening of a four-day ‘Retreat and Advance Teaching and Learning’ organised for Senior Members of the College of Health Sciences of the University on Monday in Sunyani.
The event, on the theme “Quality Education: Implementing Integrated and Case-based Learning” was to empower the College to develop and implement an ‘Integrated and Case-Based Learning Approach’ into the curriculum within and across its respective schools.
It also aimed at enhancing the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors necessary to implement case-based, interactive and integrated learning to improve their students’ education and ultimately the health of individuals, families and communities in Ghana.
Besides, the retreat was to enable faculties to integrate content within and across their disciplines as well as create examinations that would challenge their students not only in terms of recall of factual knowledge, but also in applying critical thinking skills.
Prof. Owusu-Dabo said practical and issues-based curriculum for teaching would help to churn out good and innovative students well-equipped for problem solving to ensure quality and universal services provision for the country and significantly contribute to achieving the goal four (4) of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The intention, he explained was for the faculties to be able to teach in an interactive manner that “engages and stimulates students” toward more active learning and improve teaching and learning through integrated and case-based learning approaches as well as strengthen the relationship among faculties, staff and students.
The retreat would discuss various forms of learning activities with emphasis on active learning, use of cases and integration of different disciplines and constituted team responsible for the integrated and case-based learning for the enhancement of the University’s core mandate enhanced.
The interactive sessions of the retreat included how to write high-quality multiple-choice questions, especially using clinical cases/laboratory scenarios/real world scenarios for both clinical and non-clinical courses.
The faculties “will practice the concepts learned in the sessions and receive feedback provided by their peers and the facilitators”.
GNA