Written by Marguerita Bagulo

On November 24th, the African Science Academy (ASA) Math Masterclass had its maiden session for the year 2021 in the Eastern Region. ASA brought 43 Mathematics teachers together for a one-day open space conference with the help of Tullow Oil and in collaboration with the Ghana Society for Education Technology (GSET).

The Maths Masterclass was designed to share and broaden the knowledge of senior high school Maths teachers as well as come up with practical and engaging ways to teach Mathematics. This year’s program took place at the Teachers’ Resource Centre in Koforidua and had Mr. Koomson of the Ghana Education Service in attendance. Mr Koomson who was representing the Regional Director of Education expressed appreciation to the organizers for choosing the Eastern Region for the Math Masterclass. Mr Koomson also entreated the teachers present to put their knowledge from the session to good to positively improve the love of students for STEM in the region. He was particularly delighted about the aspirations of Tullow Oil to create a lasting contribution in the field of mathematics education.

According to Mrs Gifty Ghansah, Head Teacher of the African Science Academy(ASA), lead Organizers of the session, Tullow Oil has supported ASA’s efforts to provide free professional development sessions for senior high school math instructors across the
country since 2017. ASA is an all-girls school dedicated to advancing the study of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics all over Ghana. Mrs Ghansah stated, ASA birthed the Math Masterclass in 2017 and train has made stops in 5 regions so far, since its inception, and it is the hope of ASA to become one of the leading names when it comes to STEM education in Ghana.

With discussions on Assessment for Learning, Effective Mathematics teaching and learning strategies for topics and how technology can improve engagement and enjoyment of the subject, ASA intends to play a transformative role in the educational life of over 1600 Eastern Region High School students via their educators’ application of shared Mathematics knowledge. In the discussion on Assessment for Learning, the teachers got to find out diverse ways of providing feedback to their students without discouraging them. They also got to know and share the various ways of assessing their students in order to make informed and consistent judgment in order to help the student steadily improve. The discussion further drove home the fact that each student is unique, so one assessment skill may not be tailored to fit all of them. With knowledge of the types and purpose for each assessment, the teachers also shared the advantages of these assessment
types to both themselves and their students.

In addition to the workshops and discussion sessions, the Mathematics teachers were introduced to a number of Mathematical online STEM applications which would go a long way to make teaching and learning easier on the students and teachers as well. These online applications include GeoGebra, Khanacademy, Wolfram alpha, Desmos and Symbolab and encouraged to incorporate these in their curriculum. Notable among these online applications is GeoGebra. This is a free dynamic
mathematics software for all levels of education. With classroom resources, exercises, notes, lessons and games for both mathematics and science, it is a great way to help the students be abreast with their learning.

Miss Ethel Ashong – Nuga, the Executive Assistant of Ghana Society for Education Technology (GSET), echoed that the organization seeks to work alongside the Ghanaian educator community to swiftly introduce technology to find solutions to and inspire new ideas in education. Since its inception in 2019, GSET has become a bridge that connects millions of people worldwide and enables education communities to learn, network and trade through Continuous Professional Development sessions, online experiences and revolutionary technology projects. GSET is a National Teaching Council (NTC) accredited Continuous Professional Development service provider, with deep interest in STEM education.