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This study sought to investigate in-service mathematics teachers' knowledge of differentiated instruction in junior high schools in Tano South Municipality of Ghana. The study adopted an explanatory sequential mixed method design. We employed a sample of 50 JHS mathematics teachers comprising 41 general in-service teachers and 9 special in-service teachers in the quantitative study through a proportionate stratified sampling technique. In the qualitative phase, 6 JHS mathematics teachers comprising 4 general in-service teachers and 2 special in-service teachers were purposively selected and interviewed. In line with the design adopted, the quantitative data obtained through a questionnaire was first collected and analysed. This was followed by the qualitative data obtained through semi-structured interviews. The quantitative data were analysed using both descriptive statistical tools (such as frequency counts, percentages, mean, standard deviation, and average per item rating), and inferential statistical tools (independent samples t-test). Qualitative data used inductive content analysis. Among the findings, we found no statistically significant difference in the knowledge scores on differentiated instruction for general in-service teachers and special in-service teachers (t = -0.80, df = 48, p > 0.05). We, therefore, recommend teacher education institutions review their mathematics curriculum to reflect the use of differentiated instructional approaches among mathematics teachers.

In this paper, we reflect on our experiences teaching and working with mathematics teachers in Canada, Ghana, India and Swaziland to explore challenges and opportunities for creating mathematics tasks for peace and sustainability. Our exploration of these experiences is oriented around our interest in embedding peace and sustainability into mathematics education following the Sustainable Development Goals identified by the United Nations. We claim that attention to local contexts affords mathematics educators a medium for engaging in authentic, meaningful and context-driven mathematics tasks that address issues of local environmental, cultural and societal concerns. However, we argue that globalisation has already colonised local communities. The associated "technoscientificity", along with the conservative nature of textbooks, time constraints and the dominant force of poverty remain hindrances in creating mathematics tasks that are issue centric and socially relevant to address concerns of the local community. We end this paper by suggesting a development of a mathematics task to illustrate the possibility of creating what we call a "situated mathematics task" for students that respond to issues of local community using rural Ghana as a context.

Issues of global and local importance such as climate change and homelessness require critical perspectives across multiple disciplines including science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Our paper brings critical mathematics education and social justice alongside STEM education to explore experiences of learning to teach. We focus specifically on learning to teach through creating mathematics problems in/for STEM and social justice. As a collaborative research group we are from five countries with varied cultural backgrounds, teaching experiences, and academic pathways. Dialogue as method is used to examine experiences of creating problems through which students can interpret and transform the world. Data collected included 46 h of audio-recorded dialogue meetings, 26 developed problems, and 7 interviews with 12 students. Results indicate creating mathematics problems in/for STEM involved navigating between mathematics, social justice, and STEM across all education levels and is supported with critical dialogue across cultural perspectives, diverse experiences, and expertise. Challenges lived include questioning the content of mathematics and STEM, deepening our own expertise to draw upon local and global problem contexts, and interrogating who benefits from such problems. Our study highlights the need for continued collaborative dialogue that not only gathers educators across disciplines but also includes students as co-creators of mathematics problems that could change their relationship with the world.

This study investigates the role of economic and political institutions as drivers of renewable energy production in Africa. To achieve this, the study employs panel data of 41 African countries from 2000 to 2017. To deal with endogeneity challenges associated with panel data, we use the two-step Systems Generalized Method of Moments (SGMM). Generally, we find evidence that robust economic institutions are relevant to increasing the level of renewable energy production in Africa. Second, the disaggregated measures of economic institutions show that both size of government and Freedom to trade internationally have a positive effect on renewable energy production. On the contrary, an increase in legal system and property rights reduces the level of renewable energy production. Third, the study finds that political institutions moderate the relationship between economic institutions and renewable energy production. Therefore, toward the goal of promoting SDG 12, governments in Africa should actively strengthen economic institutions to enhance responsible production of energy. However, such efforts will be much more fruitful if the level of political institutions is also strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role that trade liberalisation policies play in attracting FDI flows to African economies from 2000 to 2017. This study contributes to the extant literature on the relevance of trade liberalisation policies in developing economies and in particular, African Countries. By employing new measures for trade liberalisation policies, the study estimated a System Generalized Method of Moment model to examine the relationship between trade liberalisation policies and FDI inflows to Africa. The findings suggest that the institutionalisation of policies to enhance trade liberalisation would be germane in attracting higher levels of FDI flows to African economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lianas are an important component of tropical forests that respond to logging disturbance. Determining liana response to selective logging chronosequence is important for understanding long-term logging effects on lianas and tropical forests. Aims: Our objective was to quantify the response of liana communities to selective logging chronosequence in a moist semi-deciduous forest in Ghana. Methods: Liana community characteristics were determined in ten 40 m × 40 m plots randomly and homogenously distributed in each of four selectively logged forest stands that had been logged 2, 14, 40 and 68 years before the surveys and in an old-growth forest stand (ca. >200 years). Results: Liana species composition differed significantly among the forest stands, as a function of logging time span, while species richness fluctuated along the chronosequence. The abundance of liana communities and of reproductive and climbing guilds was lower in the logged forests than in the old-growth forest. The ratio of liana abundance and basal area to those of trees was similar in the logged forests, but significantly lower than those in the old-growth forest. Conclusions: Logging impacts on liana community structure and functional traits were largely evident, though no clear chronosequence trends were recorded, except for species composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alkyl Grignard reagents (Et, nBu, iPr, cyclohexyl), with the exception of tBuMgCl, undergo exclusive or exceptionally highly regioselective 1,4-addition reactions to α,β-&#947,δ-unsaturated ketones, while aryl and heteroaryl Grignard reagents give mixed results ranging from exclusive 1,4-addition (1-naphthyl, 2-N-methylpyrrolyl) to regioselective 1,2-addition (2-furyl, 2:1). All alkyl, aryl, and heteroaryl Grignard reagents examined gave exclusive 1,4-addition reactions with α,β-&#947,δ-unsaturated thiol esters, with the exception of tBuMgCl, which gave an 80:20 mixture of 1,4:1,6-addition products. The high chemo- and regioselectivity observed for these reactions is attributed to a radical or radical-like pathway for the alkyl Grignard reagents and possibly a carbanion pathway for aryl Grignard reagents. The α,&#947-dienyl thiol esters provide for a one-pot tandem 1,4-addition-nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction sequence to afford 3-substituted 4-enone moieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]