Department of Educational Foundations,Management and Lifelong Learning
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Browsing Department of Educational Foundations,Management and Lifelong Learning by Author "Kinyota, Mjege"
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Item Are they Stress-Free? Examining Stress among Primary School Teachers in Tanzania(University of Ljubljana, 2021-11) Kavenuke, Patrick Severine; kayombo, Joel Jonathan; Kinyota, MjegeTeachers enter the profession with enthusiasm for the new adventure. Unfortunately, when they start working, they encounter circumstances that give rise to stress. Te present study, which used a sample of 550 participants from 50 primary schools selected from the Kisarawe district in the Coastal Region of Tanzania, examines the extent of stress among primary school teachers and the factors influencing stress. Overall, the results indicate that teachers’ levels of stress range from low to moderate. Moreover, the results from hierarchical regression analysis indicate that factors such as sex, class size, age, career intentions and teaching subject significantly predict teachers’ stress. Te study concludes that there is a need for the government, policymakers and school administrators to reduce teachers’ workload. Furthermore, school administrators in particular should be supportive and should design mechanisms that could develop a sense of collegiality among teachers in order to improve teacher-to-teacher relationships.Item The critical thinking skills of prospective teachers: Investigating their systematicity, self-confidence and scepticism(Thinking Skills and Creativity, 2020-06-16) Kavenuke, Patrick Severine; Kinyota, Mjege; kayombo, Joel JonathanRecently, researchers have shown an increased interest in studying about Critical Thinking Skills (CTSs). Indeed, the theme has become one of the most significant current discussions amongst many other international agendas. Given the perceived importance of CTSs in this 21st century, we investigated the CTSs of prospective teachers. The aim was to investigate the extent to which prospective teachers possess CTSs. Moreover, the study examined factors influencing CTSs of prospective teachers. The study sample (n = 965) was comprised of first, second and final-year students from one of the teacher education universities in Tanzania. The CTSs were measured using three dimension—systematicity, self-confidence and scepticism. Overall, the results indicated that prospective teachers had higher mean scores in systematicity and scepticism, but significantly lower mean scores in self-confidence. Also, factors such as parents’ education, parents’ occupation and year of study were significantly related to at least one dimension of CTSs. For instance, father’s education positively and significantly predicted prospective teachers’ scores on scepticism. These results have far-reaching implications for policy and future research.Item Does going abroad benefit my country? Views of highly skilled personnel from Sub-Saharan Africa on brain drain-brain circulation(Mkwawa Journal of Education and Development, 2018) Kavenuke, Patrick Severine; Kinyota, MjegeThe debate on brain drain-brain circulation has been a longlasting phenomenon of interest among educators in the field of education, in particular, international and comparative education. This long-lasting debate triggered us to rethink about the effects which the concept has on the source country as well as the destination country. The study explored the perceptions of Highly Skilled Personnel (HSPs) residing in Sub-Saharan Africa on HSPs mobility. Respondents for this study comprised of 43 Sub-Saharan African scholars. Data were collected into two phases. First, all the 43 respondents actively participated in a four-day Online Focused Group Discussion (OFGD) moderated by the researchers. The second phase involved online interviews with 12 members who also participated in the first phase. Findings indicated that the majority of respondents favoured brain circulation. This implies a significant shift from brain drain to brain circulation. The socio-economic and political contexts of countries where respondents came from influenced their responses. We suggest that in the current globalized world, instead of restricting HSPs mobility, Sub-Saharan African countries need to create attractive working environment as a means to retain the best talents and motivate those who left to come back. Furthermore, Sub-Saharan African countries must work with diaspora to improve knowledge and business networks that will enable these countries to improve their economies thereby compensating the cost incurred in educating mobile talents. Finally, brain drain-brain circulation agenda should not be viewed in isolation rather as multidimensional in nature due to its overarching countless influencing factors.Item Examining Teacher Trainees’ Attitude towards Teaching Profession and Teaching Subjects in Tanzania(Huria Journal, 2019-09-01) Kinyota, Mjege; Kavenuke, Patrick SeverineTeacher trainees’ positive attitude on teaching is fast becoming a key instrument in teacher trainees’ motivation to teaching. Thus, it is regarded as a central policy agenda that has recently captured the minds of academics and researchers. Based on those facts, we examined the extent to which teacher trainees hold positive attitude on two dimensions—attitude towards teaching profession and teaching subjects. Additionally, we investigated whether these dimensions of attitudes are significantly related to demographic variables such as gender, GPA, whether or not they had worked before joining teacher education university programme, years of work, future work preferences and subjects of specialization. Participants for this study constituted a sample of 901 final-year teacher trainees from one of the teacher education university college in Tanzania. Findings indicated that teacher trainees’ attitude and GPA were not significantly related. Instead, a significant correlation was observed between the two dimensions of attitudes. Shockingly, findings indicated that more than 50% of teacher trainees had no preferences of working as teachers. Worse enough, the figures were similar even among science and mathematics majors who are highly demanded in the teaching career. Finally, the implications for policy and future research are put forthItem Promoting Teacher Professional Learning in Tanzanian Schools: Lessons from Chinese School-Based Professional Learning Communities(Journal of Education, Humanities and Sciences, 2019) Kinyota, Mjege; Kavenuke, Patrick Severine; Mwakabenga, Rehema JaphetThis paper reports on the history, features, and challenges of School-Based Professional Learning Communities (SBPLCs) in China to elicit lessons for Tanzania towards improving in-service teacher professional development. Based on the Chinese SBPLCs, this review aims to provide some insights to educational planners and teachers in Tanzania on how to establish and maintain effective school-based professional learning. This analysis used 30 journal articles published over the past twelve years (2006-2017) to provide research-based evidence. The findings indicate that Chinese schools have registered significant achievements in SBPLCs by supporting teacher collaborative learning and research in both rural and urban areas. As Tanzania strives to promote school-based teacher professional development, several lessons are worth learning. Thus, the study recommends that the country endorse professional learning at the school level by developing explicit in-school policies, allocating time for teacherlearning, offering financial and material support to teachers, and encouraging teachers to take charge of their professional learning.Item Whose names are in science textbooks? Justifying the need for critical eedagogy in Tanzania Science Classrooms(Journal of Education, Humanities and Sciences, 2018) Kinyota, Mjege; Kavenuke, Patrick SeverineTextbooks are the most important teaching and learning resources in education in most developing countries, including Tanzania. However, researchers in education have tended to ignore critical issues related to textbooks. For example, while Africa, as a continent, has contributed a lot to the development of science and technology, it is unfortunate that African scientists and their achievements do not feature in science textbooks used in African schools. This paper seeks to explore critical aspects in science textbooks that are often taken for granted, such as names of scientists cited in those textbooks. Additionally, the question of what are the stereotypes and the hidden messages that students in developing countries learn when science textbooks are full of white male Western scientists’ names was considered pertinent for this study. We argue that such biased naming in science textbooks sends negative messages and stereotypes to students on what counts as legitimate science knowledge. We also argue that the messages, in turn, limit students’ creativity and affect their identities as science knowledge producers and owners. The situation may be worse for non-white female students from developing countries. We recommend that teachers should use critical pedagogy in science classrooms so that issues related to the nature of science and the historical development of scientific knowledge are critically questioned, analysed and discussed. Given the limited time due to the pressure of national examinations, we also recommend teachers to use information and communication technologies (ICT) to facilitate critical pedagogy. Lastly, we call for the integration of indigenous scientific knowledge in science curriculum in Tanzania.