Colleges of education early grade mathematics curriculum and national kindergarten mathematics curriculum in Ghana: A comparative analysis
Abstract
Mathematics as a subject is taught in all basic schools and all the forty-six Colleges of Education (CoEs) in Ghana. This research provides a comparative analysis of the mathematics curriculum of the CoEs early grade programme and the national kindergarten mathematics curriculum in Ghana as very little is known when it comes to such comparative analysis.
The content of the CoEs mathematics curriculum is not integrated whiles that of the kindergarten curriculum is an integrated curriculum for all subject disciplines taught in kindergarten and not specifically mathematics. The national kindergarten (KG) curriculum however contained no description of topics relating to mathematics it only indicates the aspect to be taught. For example, in the KG curriculum, the topic for sub-strand 2 for KG I, Term 1, is 'The Parts of the Human Body and their Functions' under this sub-strand, teachers are expected to teach the four subjects in the curriculum (Language and Literacy, numeracy, Creative Arts and Our World and our People) using the human parts as exemplar which is not situated in the CoE curriculum.
This could be challenging for newly qualified teachers who are used to the kind of structure of curriculum at their CoEs.
