The knowledge gap between intended and attained curriculum in Ethiopian teacher education: identifying challenges for future development

ABSTRACT

This investigation of physics teacher education in Ethiopia reveals a significant gap between the physics knowledge of pre-service teachers (PSTs) attained during training and that of the intended curriculum setting out expectations for their knowledge. Data were obtained by a test probing PSTs’ physics knowledge (attained curriculum); analysis of teacher education curriculum documents (intended); and video-recording, observation and analysis of lectures delivered to pre-service teachers at four Colleges of Teacher Education (implemented). These illustrate that implementation focuses on high-level, abstract knowledge delivered mainly via mathematical approaches, offering limited opportunities for learning basic concepts by debate. An outcome of current practice is that physics teachers lack the necessary subject knowledge to teach effectively, leading successive generations of Ethiopian students to under-achieve. The paper argues for change to enable Ethiopia to achieve its aim of raising educational achievement and societal productivity to become a low-middle income nation by 2025.

KEYWORDS:

• Curriculum design
• professional education
• mixed methods
• Ethiopia
• science education

Acknowledgements

The work reported in this paper was made possible by a UK Government Economic and Social Research Council and Department for International Development (ESRC/DfID) grant, number ES/M005240/1.

Per Kind, the original Principal Investigator, died on 1 October 2017. His inspiration for and work on the TPSS project is remembered through this publication and in Ethiopia.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The World Bank defines low-income economies as those with a Grand National Income (GNI, formerly referred to as GNP) per capita of $1,025 or less in 2015 and lower middle-income economies GNI per capita between $1,026 and $4,035. High-income economies have GNI per capita of $12,476 or more. (https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/378832-what-is-the-world-bank-atlas-method).

2. The paper will refer to both groups as low-income nations.

3. Testing mathematics and reading among African nations only.

4. www.younglives.org.uk.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [ES/M005240/1].