The Central/Western Zone Colleges of Education in Ghana and Their Demonstration Schools’ Partnership

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the collaboration between colleges of education and demonstration schools in the Central/Western Zone of Ghana. A mixed method was used for this study. In all, a sample size of 360 (students 277, tutors 53, demonstration school teachers 20 and principals and head teachers 10) was used for the study. The study employed stratified, simple random and purposive sampling techniques to select participants for the study. School Partnership Questionnaire (SPQ) and focus group discussion were used to elicit information from the respondents. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data obtained from the structured questionnaire whiles focus group discussion was analyzed using thematic analysis. It emerged that Colleges of Education and demonstration schools in the Western/Central zone collaborated in terms of field experience, sharing of expertise and organization of training programmes for demonstration school teachers. It also emerged that such collaboration led to reflective teaching activities, observation and teaching practice in the schools, periodic in-service training for the Demonstration School teachers and collaborated in conducting research. The study further revealed that college-school partnership created opportunities for colleges and schools to share their resources and encourage learning through participation. The study unfolded that the challenges embedded in college-school partnership include inadequate time for carrying out activities among others. It is recommended that Demonstration schools and Colleges of Education leadership within the Central/Western zone seek support from NGOs and individual philanthropists as well as work hard to generate more funds internally to help provide funds and instructional materials for collaborative activities and not rely on only the government.