Assessing opportunities for Virtual Reality Education in Ghanaian Junior High Schools — Perspectives from Teachers in Ga-East District

Summary

• Teachers rely mainly on verbal discussions, textbook materials & individual class exercises to teach Science.
• Junior High School (JHS) Science teachers particularly find concepts relating to Basic Electronics difficult to teach.
• The absence of Teaching and Learning Materials (TLM’s) coupled with large class sizes make science practicals rare occurrences in the classroom.
• Teachers are receptive to using Virtual Reality in the classroom and attested to the power of the technology in driving students motivation to learn and better understand science concepts.

In Ghana, it is roughly estimated that only 10% of the schools have access to laboratory materials thus making it difficult for teachers to teach science effectively. Armed with the potential of Virtual Reality, NubianVR sees an opportunity to empower educators and learners circumvent the challenges associated with teaching practical Science by building learning experiences in virtual reality.

Our attempt to better understand the state of teaching and learning practical Science had our team consult with Practical Education Network (PEN) — An organization that runs teacher training workshops to build Science teachers’ capacity in carrying out improvised Science practicals. The perspective we gained from interaction with PEN was useful in identifying challenging topics that Junior Highschool teachers struggle with.

PEN shared that teachers have continually struggled with teaching concepts relating to Basic Electronics, resulting in part from absence of teaching and learning materials, but also largely due to some teachers possession of very limited understanding of this topic in themselves. PEN’s response to this has been to organize teachers workshops, particularly focused on teaching hands-on Basic Electronics to teachers.

Seeking to assess in greater depths the atmosphere for Science teaching and learning, we met up with Science teachers at our local schools — i.e. Ga-East District in the Greater Accra Region — to get a first-hand sense of their teaching methods and challenges. Our engagement with teachers sought to gain insights on:

What teaching strategies are teachers predominantly relying on to teach Science in Junior High Schools in Ghana

What challenges do teachers face in the process to help students attain mastery of Science concepts

What are teachers’ perceptions of Virtual Reality technology and its use in the classroom are after a short demonstration

We sought to validate our hypothesis that:

“Existing teaching methods, materials and tools are insufficient in motivating and engaging learners enough to have them attain mastery in curriculum concept”.

Our method of collecting this data was primarily through guided interviews with teachers. This allowed for personal interactions with teachers and facilitated a deeper understanding of perspectives pertaining to Science instruction we had not previously considered. In addition, teachers were given the opportunity to try out three VR educational experience as most of them had not used the technology before.

The experience teachers had the opportunity to try out include:

The Body VR on the Oculus Go

MEL VR on Google Cardboard

VRLab on Google Cardboard

Preliminary results from the first interviews indicate that:

Teaching Strategies

1. Teachers rely mainly on verbal discussions, textbook materials & individual class exercises to teach science. Most teachers attempt to carry out improvised practicals where feasible. A teacher mentioned occasionally using out of class activities to teach Science. All teachers demonstrated an awareness that practicals offer the most value in driving students understanding in Science.
2. Teachers alluded to the fact that student learning could be enhanced by having access to media-based Teaching and Learning Materials (TLMs) as it reduces the reliance on verbal lectures. Teachers also indicated that this technology could be helpful in enabling themselves to understand course content better before engaging students.

Teaching Challenges

1. Resulting from the absence of Teaching and Learning Materials (TLM’s) coupled with large class sizes, practicals were rare occurrences in the classroom. On the rare event that practicals do happen in class, the large groups prevent students from individually having a feel of the process. Teachers also indicated that often practicals are “saved” for student’s preparations towards the national exams BECE thus making them less effective in anchoring students' understanding.
2. Resulting from the challenges of large class sizes often exceeding 60 students per class, coupled with the number of classes teachers need to engage and the consequent scope of grading, a few science teachers indicated that they are often under pressure and are often unable to assist students who are unable to master class content. Some teacher reveal spending about 2 hours a day marking
3. Some teachers expressed difficulty in keeping learners focused on the task at hand and engaged during class time.

Teachers Perceptions of Virtual Reality (VR)

1. All teachers welcomed the technology and attested to the power of the technology in driving students' motivation to learn and a better understanding grasp of science concepts. All teachers indicated their willingness to incorporate VR technology into the classroom for use during lesson hours. They expressed a preference for students using standalone VR devices as opposed to mobile-based VR devices.
2. Most teachers hadn’t incorporated digital media technology such as smartphones or computers into their classrooms. No teacher had used VR technology in the classroom. One teacher indicated that VR technology will be particularly helpful in practicals as compared to traditional ways of conducting practicals as virtual materials do not deplete with each use.

Moving Forward

Based on the insights gathered from this initial data-gathering exercise, our team will ideate on a VR learning solution for a single Science topic that attempts to address the “perceived challenges” we identified from interactions with teachers. We will then follow this up with more interactive interview sessions with Science teachers in our district to get feedback that will shape and mold our proposed VR learning solution. We’ll be sharing updates on this in subsequent blogs.

Despite the global effort to provide Universal Basic Education to everyone by 2015, a stock count after the Millenium Development Goals revealed that 263 million children and youth are still out-of-school. Withstanding the multitudes unable to gain access to quality education, we also need to turn out attention to children enrolled in schools.

Six out of ten children and adolescents are not learning a minimum in reading and mathematics, according to a 2017 a UNESCO Institute of Statistic (UIS) paper. Unsettled by the scope of this current global learning crisis, in 2017, NubianVR committed itself to design virtual reality solutions that contribute both towards increasing educational reach as well as improving learning outcomes and proficiency.

With support from the UNICEF Innovation Fund, NubianVR will be working to research, design and pilot VR learning solutions with schools in Ga-East District.