Early-Career Teachers’ Vowel Phoneme Knowledge in Ghanaian Basic Schools: Leveraging Flipped Micro-Professional Development

Abstract

Early-career teachers in Ghana’s basic schools often have limited explicit preparation in vowel phonemes, yet they are expected to support learners’ early reading development under constrained conditions. This paper reports on a qualitative descriptive study of an online flipped micro-professional development (micro-PD) programme designed to strengthen teachers’ understanding of vowel letters, vowel sounds, monophthongs, and diphthongs. The study is underpinned by Adult Learning Theory and Guskey’s Model of Teacher Change, which together informed the design of the micro-PD and the interpretation of teachers’ reported learning. An online, low-bandwidth intervention was offered to early-career basic-school teachers across Ghana and combined short preparatory screencasts with two live sessions. Data were generated from entry and exit checks, chat transcripts, and written reflections, and analysed using descriptive and thematic approaches. The findings indicate clearer separation of vowel letters and vowel sounds, improved recognition of monophthongs and diphthongs, and increased reported confidence in modelling pronunciation, although these confidence gains were self-reported. Despite connectivity and data constraints, teachers engaged actively through the chat and made specific links between the content and their classroom practice. The study suggests that a theoretically informed flipped micro-PD model can support conceptual development in phonology and offer a practical, scalable approach to CPD for teachers in low- and middle-income contexts.