INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING STUDENTS WITH MIXED ABILITY IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN CENTRAL REGION

ABSTRACT

The purpose for this study was to investigate the strategies adopted by Physical Education (PE) teachers to manage students’ diversity in Mixed Ability Classes (MAC) and also to examine the factors that influence teachers’ choice of teaching strategies for MAC during instruction as well as the challenges teachers encounter in teaching MAC. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The entire population of 135 trained PE teachers was purposively sampled for the study. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (multiple regressions) were used in analyzing and discussing the result. The findings of the study revealed that whole class teaching strategies (M=2.98, SD=0.63) is the most frequently used teaching strategy by Senior High School (SHS) PE teachers in Central Region. Station teaching (M=2.54, SD=1.04) was the rarely used teaching strategy by SHS PE teachers in Central Region. The findings also revealed that the amount of space available to a teacher influences their decision to use group/cooperative (S.E. =1.009, B= 1.95,𝑝 < 0.05). The use of station teaching is influenced by the amount of teaching time available to them (S.E=0.953, B=1.13, P˃0.05). It is concluded, the predominant use of whole class teaching coupled with the challenges PE teachers in Central Region encounter in their MAC will limit their ability to cater for the needs of students. It is recommended that the Ministry of Education (MoE) in conjunction with other stakeholders should provide and supply adequate facilities and equipment for the teaching of PE