TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION AND PERCEIVED IMPACT OF WEBB’S DEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE IN SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS IN GHANA

Resumé

This research focused on determining the perception of senior high school teachers toward Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK) in terms of its application and impact. The key focus was on how beneficial DOK is when planning lessons; teachers’ perceptions of its contribution to student engagement and academic learning; and what obstacles teachers encounter in using the model. This research used a descriptive survey design, employing a stratified random sampling technique, to select a total of 528 participants. A quantitative analysis of the data was conducted using SPSS version 26. The results indicated that although many participants felt that they needed to do a better job of implementing each DOK level, the majority believed that DOK was a good source for helping them develop appropriate levels of complexity in their assessments and instructional tasks, and to develop skills in critical thinking. Participants additionally believed that teachers perceived DOK as supportive of students’ reasoning, problem-solving and participation in classroom discussions. Nevertheless, some major obstacles to the successful implementation were noted as very large class sizes, test-driven instruction, too few resources, and a lack of professional development. The findings indicated that teachers perceived that while teachers perceived DOK as a useful framework for instructional planning and student engagement, more institutional support, along with targeted teacher training, is required to effectively implement DOK.