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Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4   
pp 87-103  DOI  10.14434/gjte.v4i1.36705

Open Access

Published by the Global Insitutute of Transformative Education (http://www.gite.education)
© Hanson & Beem. 2024. Open Access This journal is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 
NonCommercial NonDerivative 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which 
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Transitioning Hands-On STEM Teacher Training in Ghana 
from an In-Person to Online Modality

Mawuena A. Hanson1 & Heather Beem2

Abstract
COVID-19 provided an avenue for teaching and learning to be done remotely, hence Practical Education 

Network (PEN), a nonprofit organization in Ghana, took advantage of this to transition from an in-person to on-
line training mode. This study aimed to determine how the efficacy of hands-on STEM teacher training in Ghana 
compared between fully in-person and fully online modalities as well as the best practices that can be elucidat-
ed from a Ghanaian training provider’s transition between the two. In-person training content was converted 
into videos and PowerPoint presentations accessed asynchronously together with synchronous Zoom sessions 
for discussions. Between 2020-2021, two hundred and twenty (220) teachers who teach Science, Math and ICT 
were selected from 10 Regions of Ghana to participate across five (5) cohorts. Relying fully on locally available 
materials, PEN successfully implemented an online training on hands-on content, which is arguably a “pandem-
ic-proof” approach. Results showed that teacher confidence and feasibility to implement hands-on activities 
increased with statistical significance and large effect size for both in-person and online training offerings. 
Hence, even with minimal technology, teachers across Africa could be trained online and experience meaning-
ful learning. The key difference between the two modalities was the time involved, as the online offering was 
spread out over a longer period of time. This work can motivate other African education providers to pursue 
online offerings, as they are lower-cost, and can still be effective, despite contextual challenges.
Keywords: STEM, Teacher training, In-person training, Online training, Locally available materials, Hands-on 

Full listing of authors and contacts can be 
found at the end of this article.

Introduction
The vast majority of education providers in Africa 

have traditionally relied exclusively on in-person offer-
ings (Crawfurd, Evans, Hares, & Sandefur, 2021). The 
COVID-19 pandemic triggered a need for education and 
learning opportunities to be made available remotely. 
Closure of schools in the wake of the pandemic implied 
that innovative strategies needed to be employed for 
teaching and learning to continue while students were 
home. This was necessary to avoid disruptions in the 
educational sector (Addae, Amponsah, & Gborti, 2021). 
This presented a significant obstacle to be surmounted, 
given contextual challenges with online learning such 
as poor internet connectivity, low digital literacy levels, 
and the familiarity with in-person engagements for 
establishing connection.

Existing teacher training landscape in Africa
Teacher professional development is a necessary 

component of the provision of quality education. To be

effective and remain relevant, teachers need to have 
periodic in-service training. However, an insufficient 
proportion of teachers in Ghana and Africa at large are 
afforded the opportunity to engage in this regularly 
(Sanyal & UNESCO, 2013). Several teacher training ser-
vice providers operate in Africa, however most of them 
focus on general pedagogical practice. Only a few utilize 
digital modalities for training delivery, even after the 
pandemic. And even fewer focus on the unique needs 
that STEM teachers have.

Ghana is a rapidly developing economy, and the 
country is actively implementing a number of educa-
tion reforms. Nonetheless, the same gaps mentioned 
in Africa’s teacher training landscape hold in Ghana: 
few of them leverage digital approaches or provide 
STEM-specific content. The digital education interven-
tions that exist in Ghana are generally directed at stu-
dents, such as studying past questions for the national 
exams (eCampus, 2023) or learning to code (Suacode.
ai, 2023). Almost no digital interventions in Ghana fo-
cused on teachers prior to the pandemic. The Center for 
National Distance Learning and Open Schooling 

88



Hanson & Beem, Transitioning STEM Teacher Training to Online Modality 89

(CENDLOS, 2023)and Ghana Society for Education-
al Technology (GSET, 2023) are two exceptions. The 
EdTech Readiness Index (Marin, Cobo, Cloutier & 
Lambert-Porter, 2021) shows six pillars on which a 
country’s readiness to adopt EdTech could be found-
ed. Many African countries will score relatively low on 
this. STEM-specific training content is highly needed in 
Ghana, given that those subjects are known to be most 
effective when taught in an experiential manner. The 
lack of hands-on learning is something that is often 
lamented amongst Ghanaian education stakeholders, 
utilizing the phrase “chew and pour” to describe the 
rote approach that pervades practice (Owusu-Acheaw, 
2014), especially in STEM subjects. The traditional 
approach tends to encourage memorization and repro-
duction of facts, limiting learning outcomes (Nugba & 
Quansah, 2020). Regarding hands-on learning in Ghana, 
a small number of training providers include it in their 
offerings, mostly approaching it from a play-based 
learning approach, albeit not in STEM (Foundation 
First, 2023; Sabre Education, 2023; Right to Play, 2023). 
In addition to the Ghana Association of Science Teach-
ers (GAST), Practical Education Network (PEN) is one 
of the few STEM teacher training providers in Ghana, 
and its program will be the subject of this study. PEN’s 
approach of in-person training of teachers to leverage 
low-cost materials to teach hands-on activities in STEM 
subjects has had a significant impact on student atti-
tudes and learning outcomes in Ghana (Babb & Stocke-
ro, 2020; Practical Education Network, 2020). The Af-
rican and Ghanaian education landscapes experience a 
gap in training offerings for teachers both in the digital 
modalities and in a pedagogical approach targeted at 
hands-on learning. There is a need to scale up existing 
interventions that are effectively filling the gap.

Response of education stakeholders to COVID-19 in 
Africa 

The disruption of education due to COVID-19 called 
for the development of innovation that could help the 
delivery of education remotely (Mukute, Burt, Fran-
cis, & De Souza, 2020). Most governments around the 
world called on their teachers to ensure continued 
learning in the pandemic, but few African governments 
were able to offer training or specific support for them 
to do so (Vegas, 2020). Nonetheless, several interesting 
interventions emerged on the continent. They can be 
categorized into those that facilitated passive learning 
and those that facilitated active learning.

African governments launched several educational

programs, and largely passive learning approaches such 
as leveraged television and radio to do so (EdTech Hub, 
2020). Countries like Nigeria, Tanzania and Sierra Le-
one broadcasted lessons on TV (Osman, & Keevy, 2021). 
Radio emerged as a popular tool for remote learning 
during the pandemic. Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Basic 
and Senior Secondary Education turned to “Education 
Radio” (Government of Sierra Leone, 2020), “Rising on 
Air,” an initiative from Rising Academies, was adapted 
for use in more than 10 countries (Flood, 2020), and 
Yiya AirScience in Uganda supported remote and out-
of-school children (Kisakye, 2020). Challenges with 
radio include its ephemeral nature, the difficulty of 
monitoring its use, and the minimal interactivity levels 
it facilitates (Damani & Mitchell, 2020).

A few interventions emerged for active learning on 
the continent. Zoom and other video conferencing were 
some of the most popular online platforms for teaching 
and learning during the pandemic (Erna, Genisa, Mus-
laini, & Suhartini, 2022). Lower bandwidth options like 
WhatsApp were also used for running teacher training, 
as led by Nigeria’s CCHub (Tijani, Madu, Falade, & Dele-
Ajayi, 2021). In Sierra Leone, phone calls were used 
for live tutoring (Crawfurd, Evans, Hares, & Sandefur, 
2021). More active approaches, such as these, should be 
considered as preferred options for learning. The role 
of the teacher is important for roles such as facilitat-
ing two-way dialogue, addressing misconceptions and 
increasing engagement (Munna & Kalam, 2021). To the 
authors’ knowledge, no African service providers devel-
oped a digital offering for teacher training, and which 
facilitated a hands-on approach. 

Response of education stakeholders to COVID-19 in 
Ghana

Ghana’s national education response in the 
COVID-19 pandemic centered around the Ministry of 
Education’s production of a TV broadcast of lessons 
for students (Dome & Armah-Attoh, 2020) and a radio 
reading program (US Embassy in Ghana, 2023). For 
the TV program, each class for primary and JHS had 35 
minutes of content, whereas each class for SHS had 60 
minutes of content per day (Ghana Education Service, 
2020) As mentioned earlier, this platform facilitates 
passive learning, which has inherent limitations. High-
end private schools were able to transition to fully re-
mote offerings so as to enable a more active approach. 
This, however, only benefited a small minority of the 
population. Most students in Ghana found themselves 
largely devoid from structured learning from March to

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4



90

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4

December 2020. At the grassroots level, a few other 
interventions also emerged, such as a radio program in 
the Western Region. These did not, however, attempt 
to cover hands-on learning, and focused on delivering 
content knowledge.

Methods employed by hands-on education provid-
ers to transition online/remote

Globally, prior to the pandemic, most online courses 
lacked significant hands-on components (Eisenberg 
& Fischer, 2014). Enabling hands-on content online 
is a challenge that most education providers had not 
tackled until the COVID-19 pandemic provided a strong 
impetus. Efforts to transition hands-on learning online 
can generally be grouped into three categories. 
1)  Materials kits for each student. Several universities 

adopted this approach, packaging kits and shipping 
them to students (Halpern, 2021; Hart et al, 2021; 
Leung & Chu, 2020; McQuate, 2020; Travaglini, 
Sheppard, Chen, & Nittali, 2021; Wu et al, 2020).

2)  Remote labs where students either observe a lab 
technician/teacher conduct an experiment or 
remotely control a pre-made experimental setup 
(Yeung, 2020). 

3)  Virtual labs using computer-based representations 
or simulations, usually involving animations (Ad-
vanced Tools for e-Learning, 2023; Pivot Interac-
tives, 2023; University of Colorado Boulder, 2019). 
These can be programmed for pre-determined 

modes of interactivity. Some of these virtual labs had 
been around for decades prior to the pandemic. Papers 
comparing all of these approaches (Bishop et al, 2021; 
Fox, 2020; Wijenayake et al, 2021) reveal challenges 
such as equitable distribution of materials and cost of 
implementation.

Using or adapting any of these three approaches to 
the African context presents a few challenges. With the 
first approach, the cost of shipping materials is high. At 
the onset of the pandemic, Ashesi University in Ghana 
adopted this approach to send engineering kits to all 
students (Ashesi University, 2020) but the cost prohib-
ited its continued use. The cost involved in delivering 
materials to the “last mile” in rural Africa is significant. 
The need for using readily available materials has been 
mentioned (Larson & Farnsworth, 2020). A few educa-
tors developed innovative approaches for guiding their 
students to use materials they had around them, such 
as using a smartphone to measure focal length (Girot, 
Goy, Vilquin, & Delabre, 2020). With the second and 
third approaches, remote and virtual labs evade the

tactical experience that facilitates deeper engagement, 
flexibility to test variations beyond the guided prompts 
and therefore greater connection to each individual’s 
existing knowledge and constructs. Remote labs are 
more difficult to carry out given the generally low band-
width and therefore short duration that video connec-
tion can be maintained in a group. Virtual labs inher-
ently present a layer of artificiality to lab work which, 
in the authors’ opinions, continues to evade the goal of 
engaging in real experiences students are craving. Also, 
these tools have not necessarily been designed for mo-
bile usage, which is the dominant platform that African 
teachers would be using. There is a need for developing 
approaches to deploying hands-on learning remotely 
in a manner that is contextually appropriate for the 
African continent.

Practical Education Network (PEN) is a Ghanaian 
NGO with a mission to enable every African child to 
learn by doing. PEN’s core programming is a hands-on 
STEM teacher training program, which builds capac-
ity to leverage low-cost, locally available materials 
(Practical Education Network, 2024). PEN’s definition 
of hands-on learning comes from the constructivist 
approach and necessarily utilizes physical materials 
to facilitate learning. PEN leaned into the challenges 
presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and successfully 
translated its hands-on teacher training from a fully 
in-person to a fully online offering. This paper high-
lights aspects of this translation, key lessons learned in 
the process, and the effect of the online training.

Two research questions are explored in this paper. 
RQ1: “How does the efficacy of hands-on STEM 

teacher training in Ghana compare between 
fully in-person and fully online modalities?” 

RQ2: “What best practices can be elucidated from 
a Ghanaian training provider’s transition from 
in-person to online modalities?”

The translation process and resultant learnings are 
presented in this paper, with suggestions for how this 
model can be employed by other training providers on 
the continent to similarly transition to online modali-
ties.

Methodology
COVID-19 challenged PEN to translate its purely 

in-person training into a fully online mode. Hence its 
content was converted into videos and PowerPoint pre-
sentations for participants to access asynchronously. 
This was complemented with live training and discus-
sion sessions held on Zoom as well as assignments

Hanson & Beem, Transitioning STEM Teacher Training to Online Modality



Hanson & Beem, Transitioning STEM Teacher Training to Online Modality 91

offered in Google Classroom, a Learning Management 
System (LMS). To have an effective and successful on-
line training, inclusion criteria were set. Teachers who 
had a good internet connectivity, access to a smart-
phone, laptop or desktop computer, and who were mo-
tivated and committed to completing an online training 
were included in the online training. Teachers’ com-
mitment to completing the training included attending 
all live training sessions, completing and submitting 
assignments. The assignments were in the form of

watching videos and replicating hands-on activities in 
their classroom and uploading these videos on the LMS. 

Figure 1 shows the process involved in imple-
menting PEN’s in-person and online training modes. 
Although both begin similarly, the online modality has a 
few additional elements that facilitate its delivery over 
a period of time. In the online training, a WhatsApp 
group was formed to facilitate communication between 
the organization and the participants. Then the same 
content was broken down into short modules complet-

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4



Hanson & Beem, Transitioning STEM Teacher Training to Online Modality 92

ed over time. A cycle of live Zoom sessions and assign-
ments on an LMS was repeated multiple times. The 
Zoom session served to first orient teachers to the pro-
gram and then later served as a platform for experience 
sharing based on what they completed as their assign-
ments. Short instructional videos on how to conduct 
each hands-on activity were shared on the LMS, the 
teacher was guided to gather the local materials in their 
own locality, reproduce the activity on their own, and 
upload a short video of them conducting the activity.

Over the period of 2014-2019, the in-person train-
ing program was rolled out for several cohorts across 
Ghana. In 2020-2021, this training program was rolled 
out fully online and for five different cohorts. Details 
of the online training cohorts are captured in Table 1. 
These covered various Districts and Regions within 
Ghana, some being urban, some peri-urban and some 
rural. The funder type also varied. In all cases, Ghana 
Education Service (GES) was closely consulted in the 
implementation. The cohorts will be referred to by their 
abbreviated names henceforth in this paper.

Baseline Information
A pre- survey, a digital literacy and access to IT 

equipment survey, and a consent form, developed as 
Google Forms, were administered prior to the training 
to collect baseline data. The pre-survey was used to 
assess teachers’ teaching practice and knowledge of 
teaching using hands-on methods. The digital literacy

and access to IT equipment survey collected data on the 
digital literacy levels of teachers prior to the interven-
tion, whereas the consent form was used to officially 
seek the consent of teachers to participate in the online 
training. However, data analyzed to obtain baseline 
information was from the digital literacy and access 
to IT equipment survey. Data such as teachers’ usage 
of video conferencing tools, participation in an online 
course before the training, access to digital devices and 
challenges faced while using the internet was collected 
and analyzed using simple descriptives. The survey had 
closed-ended questions which were analyzed quanti-
tatively. The categories of questions asked sought to 
find out about teachers’ proficiency in the use of video 
conferencing tools, challenges teachers faced while 
using the internet, teachers experience with taking 
courses online, among others as shown in the Appen-
dix. The questions asked included “Have you taken an 
online professional course or class before, and Likert-
scale questions on teacher confidence and feasibility of 
conducting hands-on activities in their classrooms.

Endline Information
A post-survey in the form of a Google Form was 

also used to collect data on the impact of the training 
on teachers. The course completion rate of the train-
ing compared to other Massive Open Online Courses 
(MOOCs) and challenges teachers faced while partici-
pating were determined at the end of the online train-

ing. The course completion 
was calculated as the percent-
age of teachers who completed 
PEN’s online training divided 
by the percentage of teachers 
who signed up for the training. 
This figure was compared to 
that of other online courses. 
Both pre and post surveys 
asked the same close-ended 
questions on confidence and 
feasibility. These were an-
alyzed quantitatively using 
simple descriptives. Sample 
questions asked included: “I 
can now carry out STEM-re-
lated hands-on activities in 
my classroom,” “I know what 
to do to increase my students’ 
engagement during a science 
lesson,” “I am confident I can

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4



Hanson & Beem, Transitioning STEM Teacher Training to Online Modality 93

teach my students using a hands-on approach today,” 
“I am confident that I can address most of my students’ 
concerns during science lesson using a hands-on ap-
proach.” Pre-post comparison of teachers’ confidence 
levels and feasibility to carry out hands-on activities 
during their lessons was done to determine change 
in teacher skills and attitudes over the course of the 
training. Paired t-tests, to determine p-values for 
statistical significance (p < 0.05) and Hedge’s g test, to 
determine the effect size were done. The effect size was 
considered to be small if |g| >0.2, medium if |g| >0.5, 
and large if |g| >0.8. These compared the change in 
confidence and feasibility levels from both the in-per-
son versus online training modes. Learning gains were 
also determined for both online and in-person teacher 
participants. Teachers’ learning gains per unit time 
were calculated as the difference in average scores of 
confidence and feasibility indicators, before and after 
the training, divided by the amount of time spent with 
each training cohort. 

Figure 2 illustrates the key components of the 
training format, namely providing instructional video 
content that the teachers could watch asynchronous-
ly, teacher replicating the activities themselves and 
uploading a video as evidence, and finally a group Zoom 
session used to share experiences on the hands-on 
activities they carried out.

Field Visits and Interviews
After the training program was complete, PEN staff 
followed up on some teachers who were randomly 
selected from the Greater Accra Western and Ashanti 
Regions of Ghana. The selected teachers in the Greater 
Accra Region were visited in their schools and those in 
the Western and Ashanti Regions were interviewed on

the phone six months 
after being trained. 
Pictures of teachers 
and their learners 
were taken, and the 
beneficiary teachers 
were also inter-
viewed face-to-face 
during the field visits. 
Teachers in other re-
gions outside Accra, 
were interviewed 
via phone calls. All 
interviews were tran-
scribed verbatim, and 

stories were developed out of them. 

Results
Participant Demographics

In total, across the five cohorts, 220 teachers who 
teach Science, Math and Information and Communi-
cation Technology (ICT) were selected from 10 out of 
the 16 regions in Ghana to participate in PEN’s online 
teacher training in the use of hands-on methods to 
teach STEM subjects. They were between the ages of 18 
and 50 years. 57% of the teachers were males and 43% 
were females.

Baseline Information
Figures 3 to 8 capture key results obtained from the 

baseline data. These help to create a picture of teachers’ 
access to digital devices as well as their digital literacy 
levels prior to the training.

Figure 3 shows teachers’ exposure to selected 
video conferencing tools. Teachers surveyed across five 
training groups were generally not exposed to using 
video conferencing tools. However, teachers were more 
exposed to Zoom compared to other video conferencing 
tools.

Comparing teachers who had never used Zoom 
to those who had before the training, data collected 
showed that many teachers described themselves as 
being very good at using Zoom. 40% of the teachers 
were very good at using Zoom compared to 10% who 
had never used it. These exposure levels that teachers 
reported did not differ significantly whether they were 
based in rural or urban areas.

Figure 4 details the percentage of teachers who had 
taken any online course before the training. Baseline 
data collected before the online training. Baseline data

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4



Hanson & Beem, Transitioning STEM Teacher Training to Online Modality 94

collected before the online training showed that 
teachers were not used to or exposed to doing online 
courses or training. About 73% of the teachers had 
never done an online training prior to PEN training. 
Generally, teachers in all the training cohorts had a 
low level of exposure to taking an online course prior 
to the training. However, teachers from Nzema East 
which is a largely rural District had a relatively higher 
value (56%) for percentage of exposure to online 
training. This could be attributed to lower reliability, 
given that the Nzema East cohort had the smallest 
sample size. 

Percentage of teachers who had access to a digital 
device prior to the training is shown in Figure 5. This 
data reveals that smartphones are by far the device 
which are most accessible to this teacher population, 
and therefore they will be relying mainly on them to 
engage with the online training. Only 6% of teachers 
owned desktop computers and 27% of them owned 
laptops.

Figure 6 shows the percentage of teachers who 
reported generally facing challenges while using the 
internet before the training. In aggregate across the 
five training groups, about 55% of the teachers sur-
veyed said they faced challenges using the internet. 
Generally, the five cohorts reported similar respons-
es, except for Nzema East, which again is likely attrib-
utable to the low sample size in that cohort.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4



Hanson & Beem, Transitioning STEM Teacher Training to Online Modality 95

Figures 7 and 8 show the type of challenges teach-
ers faced while using the internet prior to the training. 
The types of challenges faced include cost of purchasing 
internet data, poor internet connectivity, faulty device, 
and inability of device to download certain apps. Cost 
of data was the major challenge faced, with 44% of the 
teachers attesting to that, followed by poor internet 
connectivity (34%), inability of device to download 
certain apps (14%) and faulty device (8%). 

Endline Information
In Figure 9, the percentage of teachers who suc-

cessfully completed the training program is presented. 
Teachers in the SECF training cohort had the highest 
percentage (85%) of teachers completing the training. 
Ahanta West training cohort had the least percentage 
(14%) of teachers completing the training. Across all 
cohorts the online training had an overall course com-
pletion rate of 48%. 

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4



Hanson & Beem, Transitioning STEM Teacher Training to Online Modality 96

Table 2 shows the p-values of t-tests 
conducted on teachers’ confidence and feasi-
bility levels (scale of 1 to 5) before and after 
PEN’s in-person and online hands-on train-
ing. The increase in teacher perceptions was 
statistically significant (p < 0.05) for both 
teachers participating online and in-person, 
and with large effect size (|g|>0.8). Teach-
ers who participated in either online and 
in-person training all increased significantly 
in confidence and feasibility levels in the use 
of hands-on methods to teach STEM subjects 
after the training. 

The learning gains achieved were high-
er per unit time in-person than they were 
online as presented in Table 3. On average, 
in-person training had 7.2 times higher 
learning gains per week than the online ver-
sion, based on the feasibility metric.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4



97

Table 4 shows that on average, in-person training 
had 8.1 times higher learning gains per week than the 
online version, based on the confidence metric. Deliver-
ing the same training content online required a longer 
interaction time. Hence, although both modalities 
resulted in significant gains and with large effect size, 
the online modality required a longer time. It should 
be noted that the participants differed between the 
in-person and online cohorts, hence there is a limita-
tion on how directly comparative this analysis can be. 
Nonetheless this highlights the main point that both 
offerings are effective, however, the online offering like-
ly requires a longer time to achieve the same learning 
outcomes.

Field Visits and Interviews
Staff from PEN visited a few of the training par-

ticipants in their respective schools six months after 
finishing the online training. The following three stories 
from the field and quotes 
capture some ways in 
which the online training 
was seen to have made an 
impact on teachers and 
students.  These teachers 
shared staggering testi-
monies about the positive 
effect of the training. They 
testified about the signifi-
cant knowledge and skills 
they have gained to help 
improve the teaching and 
learning of STEM subjects.

Madam Ama (pseudoname) teaches Primary 5 in 
one of the public basic schools in Accra. After receiv-
ing PEN’s training, she now uses hands-on methods 
to teach science, and this is empowering her students. 
This was very evident in the confidence with which 
her learners answered science questions asked them 
during our visit. As seen in Figure 10, the students 
happily showed some innovations they created out of 
their experiences with hands-on teaching and learning. 
They went beyond the curriculum and decided to apply 
the hands-on approach to creating designs of ideas 
they generated. Madam Ama informed us that all the 
students in her class, even those who previously were 
not doing well in science, gained more interest, became 
innovative and performed better in their science tests.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4

Hanson & Beem, Transitioning STEM Teacher Training to Online Modality



98

Madam Efe (pseudoname) says that before attend-
ing this training, when she needed to teach her learners 
about temperature, she would walk to a nearby hospi-
tal to borrow a thermometer. But after being exposed 
to the possibility of using everyday materials in our 
environment, she now uses her own plastic bottles, 
alcohol, and straws to demonstrate the concept. She 
has seen that her students understand concepts better 
than before and do not easily forget them. Moreover, 
her students always inquire about what the next topic 
to be treated is, so that they can help look for the as-
sociated local materials and bring them for their next 
science lesson. Madam Efe even noted that truancy 
levels reduced because her students have become more 
engaged in her lessons. Figure 11 shows an example 
set of local materials that a teacher and their students 
gathered to facilitate this type of learning.

Madam Helen (pseudoname) is a Primary 5 teach-
er in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. She is a class 
teacher who teaches subjects including science in a 
public school. Madam Helen mentioned that prior to 
the intervention, most of her students were not inter-
ested in science, hence were not doing well in it. How-
ever, when we visited the school, we clearly observed 
learners who were actively engaged in their science 
class. Madam Helen testified of a particular learner of 
hers who was originally quite disinterested in science 
and math, but now had become proactive and eager to 
engage in lessons, whenever practical activities were

involved. She testified of yet another learner in her 
class who surprised her with a significant positive 
change. Even that learner’s mother noticed the changes 
in her attitude towards learning, since before she saw 
her as being duller than her siblings. However, that 
learner now eagerly volunteers to act as secretary for 
her group and contributes during lessons. Previously, 
she did not like doing assignments that were given - her 
work was mostly incomplete - but she now does well to 
complete them.

The quotes below exemplify some of the feedback 
received from teachers when they were interviewed. 

“Thank you. What I have to say is that this train-
ing is not only teaching us practical science. We 
have also learned educational technology using 
the phone. With this new curriculum, we can see 
that most of the topics need IT in teaching the 
children.”- Female (Maths and Science Teach-
er-Greater Accra Region)

“We came in empty but now we can say that we 
are full because there is a change in behavior. 
Learning has also taken place. Sometimes when 
it is time for science lessons, it becomes so dull 
especially with the new curriculum because we 
do not have any approach to get the practical 
way of teaching this lesson. But this time it is 
not that.” - Female (Science Teacher-Greater 
Accra Region)

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Hanson & Beem, Transitioning STEM Teacher Training to Online Modality



99

“I personally enjoyed it because I am not the sci-
ence type. But this has given me courage to teach 
my kids. It has boosted my confidence to teach 
a science topic and I never regretted joining the 
course.”- Female (Science Teacher-Western 
Region)

“With the aid of PEN, I have learned how to 
improvise with available materials for my science 
practicals.”- Male (Science Teacher-Western 
Region)

“Previously, I taught science using the ‘lecture 
method’ where I just talked and talked. We had 
limited teaching aids, and my teaching was 
mainly me standing in front of the class and just 
talking. My headteacher recommended me for 
this training and I must say this training has 
expanded my horizon. I will say, I had a holistic 
experience. First, we started off learning how to 
use Zoom and Google classroom. This was a plus 
for me as I am now literate in the use of these 
tools.” - Female (Science Teacher-Ashanti 
Region)

The teachers who benefited from PEN’s training 
shared very positive feedback about the impact of the 
training, revealing it to be a unique offering within the 
ecosystem and highly effective in spite of the online 
nature. They testified of significant improvements in 
their teaching, increases in their students’ interest, and 
improvements in their students’ learning outcomes in 
STEM subjects, even highlighting “turnaround” cases 
for specific learners.

Discussion and Conclusion
An online version of a hands-on STEM teacher 

training offering was successfully created and imple-
mented across five training cohorts in Ghana. This 
offering fills a unique gap in the African education land-
scape and opens up possibilities for what other service 
providers can similarly do. Leveraging its focus on the 
use of locally available materials, PEN has arguably 
created a “pandemic-proof” model of its training. By 
relying fully on the use of items that can be procured or 
gathered in one’s own environment, hands-on educa-
tion can continue to be offered. Moreover, this offering 
was successfully deployed in a landscape where the 
use of digital tools has been relatively nascent. This fact 
should also challenge education providers to lean into

this in order to scale impactful interventions on the 
continent. 

In answering Research Question 1, the evidence 
suggests that the fully online modality of this hands-
on STEM teacher training in Ghana had equally strong 
outcomes on participating teachers as those who 
participated in the fully in-person version. For the two 
key metrics measured regarding outcomes at the teach-
er-level, confidence to teach using a hands-on approach 
and feasibility of teaching with a hands-on approach, 
both in-person and online participants experienced sta-
tistically significant gains and with large effect sizes as 
a result of this training. This indicates that regardless of 
the modality, the training offering is impactful. The key 
distinction between the two offerings is the duration 
of time required. In translating the training content to 
an online modality, the material was broken down into 
short components so as to enable the participants to 
go through the material without demanding too much 
data at a time and without experiencing digital fatigue. 
This meant that while the same training (Introduction 
to Hands-on Science) was covered during a one day 
in-person session, it required being spread out over 
several weeks when offered in an online format. 

In answering Research Question 2, two best practic-
es are put forward. One is to leverage the use of locally 
available materials so as to enable hands-on, experien-
tial education. Even in a remote learning setting, one 
need not ship materials to each participant nor set up 
a virtual lab in order to ensure that practical learning 
takes place. Second is to translate existing training con-
tent into short videos that can be accessed asynchro-
nously and provide specific instructions. This ensures 
that participants are engaged in the digital setting and 
that they also are guided on specifically what they can 
practice. 

This online training can be considered as a strong 
alternative along different dimensions. First, it is 
comparatively cost-effective especially with the use of 
locally available materials which are readily available 
in each person’s respective environment. The use of 
pre-recorded videos makes watching and/or down-
loading them more feasible than streaming live videos, 
both from a cost and flexibility in time standpoint. The 
completion rate for this online training based on data 
collected was 48%. This is relatively higher than the 
completion rate of most MOOCs. A study conducted in 
Indonesia saw 100% completion rate of a teacher train-
ing in-person or hybrid, but only a 31% completion rate 
when offered online (Burns, 2013). Again, the average

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Hanson & Beem, Transitioning STEM Teacher Training to Online Modality



100

completion rate of courses offered at University of 
Pennsylvania through Coursera ranged from 2-14% 
(Perna et al, 2013). 

Persistence levels through the training varied by 
cohort. A separate study investigated the factors at play 
in the course completion rate for these cohorts (Hanson 
& Beem, 2022). It revealed that the majority of teach-
ers who made it to the Onboarding stage, persisted 
through to course completion. The largest drop-off was 
between signing up (Enrolling) and attending the first 
zoom session (Onboarding). Hence, the level of sensi-
tization to the concept of online training may be one 
of the most significant factors to address to improve 
persistence. For most teachers, if they commenced 
the training, their individual motivation and drive saw 
them through to the end. Although it is easy to fall on 
the dominant narrative that poor internet connectivity 
is the key factor in inhibiting digital modes of education 
from sticking in this context, other factors such as the 
motivation level of the participant and the commitment 
level of the field partner should be considered. In spite 
of the expected challenges associated with delivering an 
online training in this context, many teachers persisted 
to complete the training, and those who did benefited 
tremendously. Based on field visits to some of their 
schools and phone interviews with others, multiple 
stories and anecdotes were shared of how this training 
impacted their teaching and their learners’ learning. 
This study can serve as an example to other African 
education service providers to lean into the opportuni-
ties that translating their content into digital modes can 
provide. 

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Hanson & Beem, Transitioning STEM Teacher Training to Online Modality

1 Mawuena A. Hanson (mahanson@
practicaleducationnetwork.com) is a Research, 
Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Officer at Practical 
Education Network, Accra, Ghana.

2 Heather Beem (hbeem@ashesi.edu.gh) is a Senior 
Lecturer at Ashesi University, and CEO of Practical 
Education Network, Accra, Ghana.

Authors

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https://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejes/article/download/3379/6015 
https://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejes/article/download/3379/6015 
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https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/1130/ 
https://www.pivotinteractives.com/
https://www.practicaleducationnetwork.com/mission-and-vision
https://www.practicaleducationnetwork.com/mission-and-vision
https://righttoplay.com/en/countries/ghana/
https://righttoplay.com/en/countries/ghana/
http://sabre.education/
http://sabre.education/
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000229200
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000229200
https://suacode.ai/
https://suacode.ai/
https://peer.asee.org/augmenting-activities-in-engineering-courses-with-tools-technology-and-kits-for-remote-experiential-learning
https://peer.asee.org/augmenting-activities-in-engineering-courses-with-tools-technology-and-kits-for-remote-experiential-learning
https://peer.asee.org/augmenting-activities-in-engineering-courses-with-tools-technology-and-kits-for-remote-experiential-learning
https://gh.usembassy.gov/u-s-partners-with-ghana-to-launch-ghana-learning-radio-program-to-improve-reading-for-all-ghanaian-children/ 
https://gh.usembassy.gov/u-s-partners-with-ghana-to-launch-ghana-learning-radio-program-to-improve-reading-for-all-ghanaian-children/ 
https://gh.usembassy.gov/u-s-partners-with-ghana-to-launch-ghana-learning-radio-program-to-improve-reading-for-all-ghanaian-children/ 
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https://www.brookings.edu/articles/school-closures-government-responses-and-learning-inequality-around-the-world-during-covid-19/ 
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/school-closures-government-responses-and-learning-inequality-around-the-world-during-covid-19/ 
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1287739 
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1287739 
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1287739 
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1287739 
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1287739 
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/remote-vs-virtual-labs


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Global Journal of Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4

APPENDIX
PEN Online Teacher Training- Digital Access & Literacy Survey

1. Full Name (as it appears on your ID card)
 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………

2. Telephone/WhatsApp Number
  ………………………………………………………………………………………………………

3. What position(s) do you hold in your school? e.g. head teacher
  ………………………………………………………………………………………………………

4. What STEM subject(s) do you teach? e.g. integrated science
Ο   Integrated Science
Ο  Mathematics
Ο   Other …………………………………………………………………..

5. What is the name of you school?
  ………………………………………………………………………………...

6. Which class(es) do you teach currently?
Ο   J.H.S 3
Ο   J.H.S 2
Ο   J.H.S 1
Ο   Class 6
Ο   Class 5
Ο   Class 4
Ο   Class 3
Ο   Class 2
Ο   Class 1

7. Type of school/institution
Ο   Private
Ο   Public/Government

8. In which region is your school located? e.g. Ashanti Region
  ………………………………………………………………………………………………

9. In which district is your school located? e.g. Ahanta West District
  ………………………………………………………………………………………………………

10. Which of the following devices do you own and can use consistently throughout the months of 
the online training? (Select all that apply)
Ο   Laptop
Ο   Desktop computer
Ο   Smart phone

11. What is/are your preferred social media channel(s)? (Select all that apply)
Ο   WhatsApp
Ο   Instagram
Ο   Twitter
Ο   Facebook
Ο   LinkedIn

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Global Journal of Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4

12. Do you have challenges when using the internet?
Ο   Yes
Ο   No

13. If yes, what are the challenges you face when using the internet? (Select all that 
 apply)

Ο   I cannot afford the cost of buying data continuously
Ο   The internet connectivity is poor at my location
Ο   I have a problem connecting to the internet with my device
Ο   The specification of my device makes it challenging to download apps
Ο   Other…………………………………………………………………………………..

14. What best describes your proficiency/usage level in using any of these video  
  conferencing tools? (Range = Very Good - Never Used it)

15. Have you ever used the Google Classroom?
Ο   Not at all
Ο   Very little
Ο   To some extent
Ο   A lot

16. What days of the week will be most favourable to participate in live sessions?
Ο   Monday
Ο   Tuesday
Ο   Wednesday
Ο   Thursday
Ο   Friday
Ο   Saturday
Ο   Sunday

17. What time of the day will be most favourable to participate in live training sessions?
Ο   9-11am
Ο   12pm - 2pm
Ο   3pm - 5pm

18. Have you taken an online professional course or class before?
Ο   Yes
Ο   No

19. How has COVID-19 affected your professional development?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Hanson & Beem, Transitioning STEM Teacher Training to Online Modality


