Secondary school teachers’ knowledge level of the concepts of environmental education in Morogoro, Tanzania

Huria: Journal of the Open University of Tanzania 2016, VoL. 23(1):pp 32-48The main focus of the study was to determine the knowledge level of the certificate of secondary education geography teachers when teaching the concepts of meteorology, environmental education and climate change. The study involved observing and interviewing 24 classroom teachers who were randomly selected from both rural and urban Morogoro. Teachers could demonstrate ability to present the causes, extent and effects of pollution and wastes including most of the concepts of the elements of weather and the use of power. But there was a disparity between the intended curriculum and the implemented one because of the observed teachers’ misconceptions, inability to link various environmental concepts or to contextualize examples and questions they ask. Therefore there should be well planned environmental education for both pre-service and in-service teachers specifically synchronized with the secondary school curriculum. This should go together with more comprehensive geography syllabus and teachers guide

Secondary school teachers’ knowledge level of the concepts of environmental education in Morogoro, Tanzania

Huria: Journal of the Open University of Tanzania 2016, VoL. 23(1):pp 32-48The main focus of the study was to determine the knowledge level of the certificate of secondary education geography teachers when teaching the concepts of meteorology, environmental education and climate change. The study involved observing and interviewing 24 classroom teachers who were randomly selected from both rural and urban Morogoro. Teachers could demonstrate ability to present the causes, extent and effects of pollution and wastes including most of the concepts of the elements of weather and the use of power. But there was a disparity between the intended curriculum and the implemented one because of the observed teachers’ misconceptions, inability to link various environmental concepts or to contextualize examples and questions they ask. Therefore there should be well planned environmental education for both pre-service and in-service teachers specifically synchronized with the secondary school curriculum. This should go together with more comprehensive geography syllabus and teachers guide

Teachers’ questioning techniques in advanced level Chemistry lessons: a Tanzanian perspective

Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 2013; 38 (12): 66-78This study investigated the extent to which teachers’ questioning techniques and the way teachers handled students’ responses facilitated students’ learning and promoted their thinking skills. The study focused on three secondary schools in Dar es Salaam. The data collection process involved classroom observations during chemistry lessons and interviews of 10 chemistry teachers. The findings showed that 80% of the observed teachers had a moderate ability in using questioning techniques to measure students’ understanding. The interesting observation in all schools was that teachers interacted frequently with active students and bothered less to involve the least active ones. Moreover, above 80% of all teachers had problems of promoting students’ thinking by maintaining a balance between the openended and close-ended questions or between convergent and divergent questions. Also, the teachers indicated severe weaknesses in guiding classroom discussions through effective questioning as their abilities in probing were low. Thus, in-service program for these teachers may improve their classroom questioning behaviour

Comparison between students’ academic performance and their abilities in written English language skills: A Tanzanian perspective

International Journal of Development and Sustainability, 2012; 1 (2): 305-325This article is based on the study which sought to compare between the students’ academic performance and their abilities in written English Language Skills. The study was conducted at the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Tanzania. The respondents were 358 finalists from six degree programmes selected randomly out of the 20 degree programmes at the university. The findings indicated that there was a statistically significant positive relationship between the students’ abilities in the English Writing Skills Test (EWST) and their University GPAs (r=314, p< 0.01). However, the content analysis of the EWST essays showed that the students had serious problems in spelling, using appropriate forms of adjectives, punctuation marks, simple present tense, recognizing passive voice and using relative pronouns and prepositions

Comparison between students’ academic performance and their abilities in written English language skills: A Tanzanian perspective

International Journal of Development and Sustainability, 2012; 1 (2): 305-325This article is based on the study which sought to compare between the students’ academic performance and their abilities in written English Language Skills. The study was conducted at the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Tanzania. The respondents were 358 finalists from six degree programmes selected randomly out of the 20 degree programmes at the university. The findings indicated that there was a statistically significant positive relationship between the students’ abilities in the English Writing Skills Test (EWST) and their University GPAs (r=314, p< 0.01). However, the content analysis of the EWST essays showed that the students had serious problems in spelling, using appropriate forms of adjectives, punctuation marks, simple present tense, recognizing passive voice and using relative pronouns and prepositions