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Joseph Ghartey Ampiah

University of Cape Coast, Science and Mathematics Education, Faculty Member

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Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah is a Professor of Science Education at the University of Cape Coast, where he has taught courses in science education, qualitative research and ethnographic research in science education since 1996. He has been a professional teacher since 1987. His research interests are in science education, teaching and learning of science at primary, junior high and senior high school levels, science classroom environments, in-service education and training. Prof Joseph Ghartey Ampiah has been involved in 28 national and international projects. He has worked with researchers from Africa, Japan, India, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and the USA. He has led major international projects such as Africa-Asia University Dialogue Research for Basic Education Development Project on Quality of basic education at classroom-level, funded by the Japanese government: Multi-site case study of basic schools in Ghana. Project funded by JICA, CICE-Hiroshima University, UNESCO and United Nations University, Tokyo (2005-2007)
Phone: +233244520764
Address: Dept. of Science and Mathematics Education, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana

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Papers by Joseph Ghartey Ampiah

Revitalizing Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa

United Nations University, 2009

State of Science Practical Work in some Ghanaian Senior Secondary Schools

Journal of Educational Development and Practice

The study investigated how schools organise science practical activities for students, and the co... more The study investigated how schools organise science practical activities for students, and the constraints under which they were organised. Completed questionnaires were received from 50 science teachers in 9 out of the 18 senior secondary schools in the Central Region of Ghana offering elective science subjects. Twenty students and Heads of Science Departments were also interviewed in four case study schools. The information obtained suggests that there are inadequate exposure of students to laboratory training and practice in the schools as a result of time constraints, overloaded curricula and inadequate equipment.Hence West African Examinations Council must emphasise science process skills which do not require extensive use of the laboratory with its attendant constraints

UPE Policy and Quality of Education in Ghana

Comparative Analysis on Universal Primary Education Policy and Practice in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2015

Understanding the Social and Economic Lives of Never-enrolled Children: A Case Study of Communities in Northern and Southern Ghana

... United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) data shows that on a... more

Understandings ofEducation in anAfrican village:The impact of information andCommunication technologies.Report on DFID Research Project Ed2000-88

CREATE Annual Report 2009

CREATE, 2009

Learning to teach in Ghana: an evaluation of curriculum delivery

Multi-Site Teacher …, 2000

Enhancing Access to Education for out-of-school Children in Hard to Reach Communities in Ghana: The ACE experience

Implementation of the Science Curriculum of the Colleges of Education: Successes and Challenges

World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2016

Teachers’ Problems of Teaching of Oxidation-Reduction Reactions in High Schools

European Journal of Education Studies, 2018

The study explored how teachers taught redox reactions to senior high school students. Within a c... more The study explored how teachers taught redox reactions to senior high school students. Within a case-study research design, six chemistry teachers with a minimum of 7 and a maximum of 12 years teaching experiences from three schools were interviewed. The results revealed four themes; inhibition of instruction, weak instructional strategy, inability to teach concepts, and teachers’ professional development. It was found that teachers employed weak instructional strategies such as expository and out of class group assignments in teaching redox reactions. The study recommends that chemistry educators and researchers should design and develop subject-specific pedagogical content knowledge for teaching redox reactions. Article visualizations:

Access, Transitions and Equity in Education in Ghana: Researching Practice, Problems and Policy

Implementing a language of instruction policy in diverse linguistic contexts in Ghana

Improving Quality Basic Education in Ghana : Prospects and Challenges of the School Performance Improvement Plan

Ghana has undergone significant and ambitious educational reforms in her post-colonial period. As... more Ghana has undergone significant and ambitious educational reforms in her post-colonial period. As the end of the colonial era approached demand for education became more pressing and the government in 1945 proposed a 10-year plan for further expansion of educational provision. In this plan, universal primary education was targeted to be achieved within 25 years (i.e. by 1970). The next wave of the expansion plan was the 1951 Accelerated Development Plan (ADP) for Education, which also aimed to achieve universal primary education (UPE) for all. The main ADP strategy to improve access to basic education was to abolish tuition fees. After independence in 1957, the new government still considered it a priority to make basic education free and introduced the 1961 Education Act to support this vision. These policies helped expand access to elementary education very rapidly. This review of the educational system is quoted extensively from two documents (Akyeampong et al., 2007; Ampiah et a...

An investigation into science practical work in senior secondary schools: Attitudes and perceptions

Senior high school chemistry students performance in IUPAC nomenclature of organic compounds

Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences, 2013

This paper reports on a study that investigated the performance of Chemistry students in IUPAC no... more This paper reports on a study that investigated the performance of Chemistry students in IUPAC nomenclature of organic compounds from two school types. The study focused on senior high school (SHS) students&#39; performance in IUPAC nomenclature of organic compounds. A cross-sectional survey provided the study with quantitative data. Stratified random sampling procedure was used to select 245 students from four out of 18 schools who offer elective science for 2010/2011 academic year in the Kumasi Metropolis of Ghana. An achievement test of 30 items was used for collection of the quantitative data. The results from the study showed that the SHS Chemistry students had showed low performance in IUPAC nomenclature of organic compounds. The independent-samples t-test analyses of the results show that there were no statistical significant differences between the scores of students from well-endowed and less-endowed schools on both naming and writing structural formulae of organic compounds using the IUPAC nomenclature system. It is therefore recommended that any assistant provided by the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to help students to improve on their performance in IUPAC nomenclature of organic compounds should be independent of the school-type.

Exploring junior secondary school boys and girls' attitude towards science: time for policy change

Discussion Paper 17. Learning to Teach in Ghana: an Evaluation of Curriculum Delivery

1 Chapter 1: Introduction 2 1.1 Overview 2 1.2 Initial Teacher Training in Ghana: Critique of Foc... more 1 Chapter 1: Introduction 2 1.1 Overview 2 1.2 Initial Teacher Training in Ghana: Critique of Focus and Purpose 2 1.3 Purpose of this Study 4 Chapter 2: Methodology 6 2.1 Approach 6 2.2 Sample 6 2.3 Research Questions 7 Chapter 3: Profile of Exiting Teacher Trainees 9 3.1 Who is doing the learning? 9 3.2 Prior Teaching Experience 10 3.3 Family and Socio-economic background 10 3.4 Discussion 11 Chapter 4: Curriculum Issues 14 4.1 Analysis of the Survey Results 14 Chapter 5: Teaching Practice 17 5.1 Teaching Practice: General Organisation 17 5.2 Teaching Practice: The Survey Findings 17 Chapter 6: Teaching Practice: The Student Teachers’ Experiences 20 6.1 Gaps between Theory and Practice 20 6.2 Teaching Practice Supervision: Tensions and Contradictions 22 Chapter 7: Student Teachers’ Beliefs about Teaching and the Profession 24 7.

High school chemistry students ’ alternative conceptions of H 2 O , OH-, and H + in balancing redox reactions

There are a number of research works into alternative conceptions for the purposes of identifying... more There are a number of research works into alternative conceptions for the purposes of identifying, categorising, and designing instructional approaches to help address them. The current study sought to find out high school students’ alternative conceptions in the introduction of H2O, H+, and OHin oxidation-reduction reactions in acidic and basic media when balancing the chemical equations using the ion-electron method. Two of the 20 two-tier diagnostic test items were used to survey the conceptions of 213 students in balancing oxidation-reduction reactions. The 213 students were randomly selected from three of the seven elective science schools in three districts assemblies of the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The findings from the descriptive quantitative data analysis show that the students have conceptual difficulties in the concept. Qualitatively, the identified students’ alternative conceptions included introduction of H2O molecules in acidic medium is to dilute the system; H+ ions ...

Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity Educational Access in Ghana Country Research Summary

Comparison of the constructivist approach and the traditional approach in the teaching of particulate nature of matter

Revitalizing Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa

United Nations University, 2009

State of Science Practical Work in some Ghanaian Senior Secondary Schools

Journal of Educational Development and Practice

The study investigated how schools organise science practical activities for students, and the co... more The study investigated how schools organise science practical activities for students, and the constraints under which they were organised. Completed questionnaires were received from 50 science teachers in 9 out of the 18 senior secondary schools in the Central Region of Ghana offering elective science subjects. Twenty students and Heads of Science Departments were also interviewed in four case study schools. The information obtained suggests that there are inadequate exposure of students to laboratory training and practice in the schools as a result of time constraints, overloaded curricula and inadequate equipment.Hence West African Examinations Council must emphasise science process skills which do not require extensive use of the laboratory with its attendant constraints

UPE Policy and Quality of Education in Ghana

Comparative Analysis on Universal Primary Education Policy and Practice in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2015

Understanding the Social and Economic Lives of Never-enrolled Children: A Case Study of Communities in Northern and Southern Ghana

... United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) data shows that on a... more

Understandings ofEducation in anAfrican village:The impact of information andCommunication technologies.Report on DFID Research Project Ed2000-88

CREATE Annual Report 2009

CREATE, 2009

Learning to teach in Ghana: an evaluation of curriculum delivery

Multi-Site Teacher …, 2000

Enhancing Access to Education for out-of-school Children in Hard to Reach Communities in Ghana: The ACE experience

Implementation of the Science Curriculum of the Colleges of Education: Successes and Challenges

World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2016

Teachers’ Problems of Teaching of Oxidation-Reduction Reactions in High Schools

European Journal of Education Studies, 2018

The study explored how teachers taught redox reactions to senior high school students. Within a c... more The study explored how teachers taught redox reactions to senior high school students. Within a case-study research design, six chemistry teachers with a minimum of 7 and a maximum of 12 years teaching experiences from three schools were interviewed. The results revealed four themes; inhibition of instruction, weak instructional strategy, inability to teach concepts, and teachers’ professional development. It was found that teachers employed weak instructional strategies such as expository and out of class group assignments in teaching redox reactions. The study recommends that chemistry educators and researchers should design and develop subject-specific pedagogical content knowledge for teaching redox reactions. Article visualizations:

Access, Transitions and Equity in Education in Ghana: Researching Practice, Problems and Policy

Implementing a language of instruction policy in diverse linguistic contexts in Ghana

Improving Quality Basic Education in Ghana : Prospects and Challenges of the School Performance Improvement Plan

Ghana has undergone significant and ambitious educational reforms in her post-colonial period. As... more Ghana has undergone significant and ambitious educational reforms in her post-colonial period. As the end of the colonial era approached demand for education became more pressing and the government in 1945 proposed a 10-year plan for further expansion of educational provision. In this plan, universal primary education was targeted to be achieved within 25 years (i.e. by 1970). The next wave of the expansion plan was the 1951 Accelerated Development Plan (ADP) for Education, which also aimed to achieve universal primary education (UPE) for all. The main ADP strategy to improve access to basic education was to abolish tuition fees. After independence in 1957, the new government still considered it a priority to make basic education free and introduced the 1961 Education Act to support this vision. These policies helped expand access to elementary education very rapidly. This review of the educational system is quoted extensively from two documents (Akyeampong et al., 2007; Ampiah et a...

An investigation into science practical work in senior secondary schools: Attitudes and perceptions

Senior high school chemistry students performance in IUPAC nomenclature of organic compounds

Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences, 2013

This paper reports on a study that investigated the performance of Chemistry students in IUPAC no... more This paper reports on a study that investigated the performance of Chemistry students in IUPAC nomenclature of organic compounds from two school types. The study focused on senior high school (SHS) students&#39; performance in IUPAC nomenclature of organic compounds. A cross-sectional survey provided the study with quantitative data. Stratified random sampling procedure was used to select 245 students from four out of 18 schools who offer elective science for 2010/2011 academic year in the Kumasi Metropolis of Ghana. An achievement test of 30 items was used for collection of the quantitative data. The results from the study showed that the SHS Chemistry students had showed low performance in IUPAC nomenclature of organic compounds. The independent-samples t-test analyses of the results show that there were no statistical significant differences between the scores of students from well-endowed and less-endowed schools on both naming and writing structural formulae of organic compounds using the IUPAC nomenclature system. It is therefore recommended that any assistant provided by the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to help students to improve on their performance in IUPAC nomenclature of organic compounds should be independent of the school-type.

Exploring junior secondary school boys and girls' attitude towards science: time for policy change

Discussion Paper 17. Learning to Teach in Ghana: an Evaluation of Curriculum Delivery

1 Chapter 1: Introduction 2 1.1 Overview 2 1.2 Initial Teacher Training in Ghana: Critique of Foc... more 1 Chapter 1: Introduction 2 1.1 Overview 2 1.2 Initial Teacher Training in Ghana: Critique of Focus and Purpose 2 1.3 Purpose of this Study 4 Chapter 2: Methodology 6 2.1 Approach 6 2.2 Sample 6 2.3 Research Questions 7 Chapter 3: Profile of Exiting Teacher Trainees 9 3.1 Who is doing the learning? 9 3.2 Prior Teaching Experience 10 3.3 Family and Socio-economic background 10 3.4 Discussion 11 Chapter 4: Curriculum Issues 14 4.1 Analysis of the Survey Results 14 Chapter 5: Teaching Practice 17 5.1 Teaching Practice: General Organisation 17 5.2 Teaching Practice: The Survey Findings 17 Chapter 6: Teaching Practice: The Student Teachers’ Experiences 20 6.1 Gaps between Theory and Practice 20 6.2 Teaching Practice Supervision: Tensions and Contradictions 22 Chapter 7: Student Teachers’ Beliefs about Teaching and the Profession 24 7.

High school chemistry students ’ alternative conceptions of H 2 O , OH-, and H + in balancing redox reactions

There are a number of research works into alternative conceptions for the purposes of identifying... more There are a number of research works into alternative conceptions for the purposes of identifying, categorising, and designing instructional approaches to help address them. The current study sought to find out high school students’ alternative conceptions in the introduction of H2O, H+, and OHin oxidation-reduction reactions in acidic and basic media when balancing the chemical equations using the ion-electron method. Two of the 20 two-tier diagnostic test items were used to survey the conceptions of 213 students in balancing oxidation-reduction reactions. The 213 students were randomly selected from three of the seven elective science schools in three districts assemblies of the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The findings from the descriptive quantitative data analysis show that the students have conceptual difficulties in the concept. Qualitatively, the identified students’ alternative conceptions included introduction of H2O molecules in acidic medium is to dilute the system; H+ ions ...

Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity Educational Access in Ghana Country Research Summary

Comparison of the constructivist approach and the traditional approach in the teaching of particulate nature of matter

Overage Enrolment in Basic Schools in Ghana: Why does it Matter?

Paper presented at the Conference on Education Access, Quality and Outcomes in Africa. Cape Coast... more Paper presented at the Conference on Education Access, Quality and Outcomes in Africa. Cape Coast. 27th-28th September 2010. Age of Enrolment Ghana government policy on education stipulates that children start class one at age 6 years. This implies that if there are no repetitions, a child should complete 6 years of primary school at the age of 11 years and junior secondary school at the age of 14 years. Hence, by age 15, a child should have completed basic school.