Department of Educational Psychology and Curriculum Studies

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Inquiry-based science teaching in community secondary schools in Tanzania: role played by the language of instruction.
(springer, 2020-10-30) Mkimbili & Ødegaard
Developing learners’ critical thinking skills through inquiry-based teaching has been an important aspect of science education. This is an exploratory study aimed at investigating the practice of inquiry-based teaching in schools that use a foreign language (English) in teaching science content. To address the issue, we conducted video observations of six teachers from four community secondary schools in Iringa municipality, Tanzania, for approximately 16 h. These six teachers and 18 students were interviewed after reviewing the clips. In our video study, we noted three major barriers to students’ development of critical thinking skills—teachers’ knowledge and beliefs regarding the nature of scientific knowledge, a classroom culture that does not support students’ development of critical thinking skills and the use of the language of instruction that is not well mastered by both teachers and students. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
Views on Inquiry-based Chemistry Teaching Practice: Linking Contextual Challenges and Specific Professional Development Needs in Some Tanzanian Schools
(Taylor &Francis, 2020-11-19) Luvanga & Mkimbili, Baraka & selina
This paper presents the findings of a study that explored the link between teachers’ views on the challenges to inquiry-based science teaching (IBST) practice in the chemistry classroom and their need for professional development. The study used a multiple case study design and collected data using interviews. Participants were purposively selected. In all, eight chemistry teachers in six schools participated in the study. Five out of six cases we studied reported that the challenges the schools faced impeded the implementation of IBST. These challenges included lack of awareness of the IBST strategy, limited laboratory facilities and equipment, insufficient textbooks and overcrowded classes. In all, the views of teachers from the six cases suggested that, before embarking on the implementation of inquiry-based science teaching, it is vital to first consider a given school’s teaching and learning resources, teacher capacity and motivation as essential factors that support the effective implementation of such innovation. Teachers’ voices in all six cases also suggested that IBST implementation requires teacher development that focuses on their actual teaching needs and contextual challenges to optimise innovation outcomes. Three relationships between school implementation context and preferred professional development initiatives emerged. Teachers in private schools with or without resources and independent of class sizes require government-initiated and expert-led provision. Teachers at government schools with limited resources and large classes suggest expert-led workshops with a focus on sharing experiences during the workshops and on return to school. Teachers at government schools with previous access to centralised professional development and sufficient school resources (including improvised materials) indicate the need for in-school support from a professional learning community to strengthen the implementation of IBST.
Group-based assignments: Member reactions to social loafers
(Hipatia Press, 2019-02) Milinga, Joseph R; Kibonde, Ezelina A; Mallya, Venace P; Mwakifuna, Monica A
Understanding how student teachers undertake their group work may provide a solid foundation for developing essential skills required for the 21st Century teachers, and subsequently help improve group-based assessment in higher education. However, social loafing has been found to interfere with this assessment mode. This article reports on undergraduate student teachers’ processes involved in doing group-based assignments amid the existence of social loafing tendencies amongst group members. It focuses on how students organize themselves in doing the work and their reactions to social loafers. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews involving 18 purposefully and conveniently selected participants from Mkwawa University College of Education in Tanzania. The findings indicated procedures that students observe in doing their group assignments such as the formulation of own group norms and rules. Additionally, it was found that group members employed humanitarian, punitive and threatening approaches as they reacted to social loafers. The article concludes that proper planning for students’ group assignments is important, in which both instructors and students should play their roles accordingly to overcome the problem of social loafing when the use of group-based assessments is indispensable within higher education contexts.
Enhancing teacher preparation for inclusion in universities and university colleges in Tanzania through prosocial education.
(2016) Milinga, Joseph R
With the ever growing need for inclusive education, teachers’ prosocial attributes are considered important in facilitating students’ learning. Today, universities and university colleges are among core institutions entrusted with the responsibility of preparing teachers. While student diversity is significant in many classrooms today, little has been written about teacher preparation in Tanzania focusing on how universities and university colleges prepare teachers in both the academic and prosocial sides of education so that they can transmit the same to learners as they embark on teaching. Linked to both available literature and personal experience, the need to integrate prosocial education into teacher education programmes in universities and university colleges is emphasized in the paper, and suggestions to this end are provided. Along with shed lighting on some anticipated challenges to producing teachers with prosocial orientations, the paper concludes on areas that need to be researched for improved teacher preparation in Tanzania.
Educating students with disabilities in inclusive schools: Results from two schools in Tanzania
(KAD International, 2016) Milinga, Joseph
The quest for equal access, participation and success in education for persons with disabilities is paramount in today’s global education context, and Tanzania is no exception. Since the ages of “denial” to “full inclusion”, educating students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms has had been responded differently by teachers and students alike across countries. Confronted by different challenges in their education, students with disabilities are to devise mechanisms to excel in such restrictive learning environments. Informed by interpretive research traditions with 59 purposefully selected participants, this paper explores challenges that students with disabilities are faced with and coping strategies used by these students in their schooling in two inclusive secondary schools in Tanzania. The findings indicate that, students with disabilities are faced with challenges which are teacher and environment-related. Consequently, the students with disabilities use complaints, assistance seeking, self-initiatives, isolation and despair, and assertiveness to cope with the challenges. The study concludes that; educational stakeholders should work collaboratively in order to lessen the impact of the restrictive nature of learning environments for students with disabilities. The paper recommends on improved teacher preparation and continued professional development in order to cater for the learning needs of students with disabilities in inclusive schools.
How Do Chemistry Teachers Deal with Students' Incorrect/Undesired Responses to Oral Classroom Questions? Exploring Effective Feedback Practices
(springer, 2019) Kayima &Mkimbili
In this paper, chemistry teachers’ reactions/behavior or actions following students’ undesired, unexpected or incorrect responses/answers to the posed teacher oral questions are reported. This study which was carried out in Tanzania in Iringa Municipality involved three chemistry teachers teaching in three different secondary schools. Actual teaching situations of the three teachers were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed interpretively. We also performed semi-structured interviews with these teachers to bring forth the teachers’ inherent perceptions about their practice in relation to what was observed of the teachers’ individual actual teaching situations. Up to eight different forms of teachers’ responses or reactions to students’ undesired responses or incorrect answers are discussed with respect to how each is perceived to either positively or negatively affect students’ progressive learning. From the study, productive questioning is affected by teachers’ inability to effectively use classroom powers to trigger students’ thinking, as well as not being able to use students’ varied views to achieve the set learning goals. Instead of using their power strategies to facilitate students’ engagement with the scientific matter, the teachers used their classroom powers to guard themselves against classroom insecurities during the teaching process, such as preventing students from questioning their subject knowledge competencies.
The Rationale of Continuous Assessment for Development of Competencies in Tanzania Secondary Schools
(2019) Mkimbili &Kitta
This paper attempts to illuminate the rationale of continuous assessment for competence development in secondary schools in Tanzania. Although, the curriculum for secondary schools in Tanzania has changed from content-based to competency-based, most teachers in secondary schools are still practicing traditional pen-and-pencil continuous assessment which is far from developing competence in students. There is a dire need for revising the assessment procedures, particularly continuous assessment to ensure the attainment of better competence level among students and realisation of high quality education in Tanzania. This paper examines the rationale of continuous assessment for competence development, as well as the challenges of implementing it. This paper recommends capacity building for secondary school teachers on competence-based assessment, so as to enable them to engage in authentic continuous assessment.
Meaningful Science Learning by the Use of an Additional Language: A Tanzanian Perspective
(Taylor &Francis, 2019) Mkimbili Selina
Science education today focuses on preparing future citizens who are critical consumers of scientific knowledge and not merely recipients of scientific facts. Thus, meaningful science learning is important in the learning process. The aim of this paper is to explore approaches for facilitating meaningful science learning in a context where an additional language is used as a language of instruction. The findings of this article were drawn from a video study of six teachers in classrooms in Tanzania and group interviews with 18 of their students. The findings suggest various approaches that can support dialogue by the use of an additional language. From this study it was noted that the home language of the learners can be utilised as a mediating agent to facilitate meaningful science learning using an additional language. In addition, hands-on activities, the use of gestures and real-life examples emerge as strategies supporting meaningful science learning in a multilingual context.
Student Motivation in Science Subjects in Tanzania, Including Students’ Voices
(springer, 2019) Mkimbili & Ødegaard
Fostering and maintaining students’ interest in science is an important aspect of improving science learning. The focus of this paper is to listen to and reflect on students’ voices regarding the sources of motivation for science subjects among students in community secondary schools with contextual challenges in Tanzania. We conducted a group-interview study of 46 Form 3 and Form 4 Tanzanian secondary school students. The study findings reveal that the major contextual challenges to student motivation for science in the studied schools are limited resources and students’ insufficient competence in the language of instruction. Our results also reveal ways to enhance student motivation for science in schools with contextual challenges; these techniques include the use of questioning techniques and discourse, students’ investigations and practical work using locally available materials, study tours, more integration of classroom science into students’ daily lives and the use of real-life examples in science teaching. Also we noted that students’ contemporary life, culture and familiar language can be utilised as a useful resource in facilitating meaningful learning in science in the school. Students suggested that, to make science interesting to a majority of students in a Tanzanian context, science education needs to be inclusive of students’ experiences, culture and contemporary daily lives. Also, science teaching and learning in the classroom need to involve learners’ voices.
The Role Played by Contextual Challenges in Practising Inquiry-based Science Teaching in Tanzania Secondary Schools,
(Taylor &Francis, 2017-06-19) Mkimbili, Tiplic & Ødegaard
Our study aims to explore the practice of Inquiry-based Science Teaching (IBST) in schools with contextual challenges in Tanzania. The study draws on multiple data sources. Eleven teachers purposively selected were interviewed. Also, out of 11 teachers, seven were observed in their practical sessions. Participants were selected from community secondary schools in Iringa Municipality in Tanzania. We found that IBST is infrequently practised and then mostly at lower levels (conducting activities and drawing conclusions). Our findings indicate that the main contextual challenges for the practice of IBST include the restrictions by the practical examinations and inadequate resources. Findings also suggest opportunities for the practice of IBST in schools with contextual challenges, such as the use of locally available materials for generating students’ investigations and specific questioning techniques referring to local science applications. Thus the design of IBST may need to be adapted to the context of the learner. This may enable the effective practice of the higher levels of IBST even in the presence of contextual challenges.

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