Teaching Methods and Learning Strategies of Economics in Senior High Schools in Central Region of Ghana

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explain and describe the extent to which background factors (student and school) influence learning strategy choice of Senior High School (SHS) Economics students in the Central Region of Ghana. The study employed the partially sequential dominant status-quantitative design. Data were gathered through questionnaires, observation and interviews. In all, 720 third year students were selected from 24 public and private schools in the region using stratified random sampling. Purposive sampling techniques were used to pick three schools for classroom observation and six students for the interviews. The study showed that teachers used student-centred methods of teaching even though the observation showed otherwise and the cognitive learning was the most preferred learning strategy of students in the region, the interviews showed that students mostly preferred meta-cognitive learning strategies. Regression results showed that learning styles and teaching methods significantly predicted cognitive learning strategies whereas learning styles, teaching methods, motivation, and student status significantly predicted students‟ use of meta-cognitive learning strategies. Finally, learning styles, teaching methods, student status, and school-type significantly predisposed students to use of resource management learning strategies. Among other things, the study concluded that using student-centred teaching methods can help students „learn how to learn‟. Therefore, teachers should shift from the use of traditional teacher-centred methods to student-centred methods to improve learning outcomes in economics at the SHS level.