Browsing by Author "Paulo, Albert"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    The 2005 Secondary School Curriculum Reforms in Tanzania: Disjunction between Policy and Practice in its Implementation
    (2005) Paulo, Albert; Tilya, Frank
    The growing need for education system to produce school leavers with capabilities in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes useful for solving social and economic challenges has prompted education reforms in Tanzania. Recent education reform involved the introduction of competence-based curriculum in secondary schools. This paper reviewed recent research on the implementation of competence-based curriculum reforms in Tanzania and compare the findings with the original policy intentions to establish the congruence between the two. The paper has established that classroom teaching, learning and assessment in most secondary schools has remained traditional contrary to the competence-based curriculum demands. Lack of comprehensive orientation to the reformed curriculum for the teachers and poorly resourced learning environment are among many drawbacks to the implementation of the reformed curriculum.
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    Pre-Service Science Teachers’ Epistemological Beliefs and Teaching Reforms in Tanzania
    (Taylor & Francis, 2016) Paulo, Albert
    In an eort to understand why recent initiatives to promote learner- centred pedagogy in science teaching made a little change in the actual teach-ing practices of science teachers, this study explored pre-service science teachers’ beliefs about science knowledge and their teaching practices. Six pre-service sci-ence teachers were interviewed to explore their beliefs. Moreover, lessons taught by pre-service teachers were observed to see how their beliefs manifest in their teach-ing practices. This was followed by post-observation interviews focusing on critical incidences observed. Findings showed that pre-service science teachers hold dualist views about science. They viewed science knowledge to be simple, rigid and deriva-tive of specific bodies of knowledge handed down by authorities such as textbooks and experts. Consistent with their beliefs, pre-service teachers asked factual ques-tions and sought pre-determined textbook-based answers from students. They adopted transmissive teaching strategies to propagate textbook-based science knowledge. It was concluded that the way science teachers uptake the aspired learner-centred teaching may be partly due to incompatible beliefs they hold.
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    Pre-Service Teacher's Preparedness to Implement Competence-Based Curriculum in Secondary Schools in Tanzania
    (2014) Paulo, Albert
    The need for education system to produce graduates with employable skills has necessitated the adoption of competence based curriculum in Tanzanian secondary schools. Consequently, teacher education institutions had to review their curriculum so as to provide pre-service teachers with teaching skills needed to implement competence based curriculum in secondary schools. This study strived to investigate pre-service teachers’ preparedness to implement competence based curriculum for secondary schools in Tanzania. It involved 16 purposively selected pre-service teachers trained at the University of Dar es Salaam. Findings showed that although pre-service were aware of the teaching and assessment methods stipulated to be used for the implementation of competence based curriculum they were not adopting the envisaged methods in their classroom practices. Pre-service teachers have continued to use traditional teacher centred teaching methods along with paper and pencil forms of assessments despite the fact that the newly adopted curriculum demands changes.