Methods in Ghanaian Primary Mathematics Textbooks and Teachers’ Classroom Practice

This paper reports a study that investigated the congruence between the teaching methods presented in Ghanaian primary mathematics official curriculum materials and teachers ’ classroom practice. The study involved a range of methods – observation of classroom practice, content and discourse analyses of lessons in mathematics. It has provided further evidence to support the supposition that in less developed countries, the official school mathematics curriculum exerts powerful influence on classroom practice. It was found out that though there was rhetoric in the introduction of the curriculum materials on the use of teaching skills that suggest discovery methods, the analyses indicated that only few learning/teaching activities that would encourage the use of such discovery methods were included in the materials