Papers by Patrick S Kavenuke
CEPS Journal : Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal, Oct 23, 2023
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International Journal of Education and Research, 2017
The debate of language of instruction particularly in Tanzania and Rwanda has drawn attention to ... more The debate of language of instruction particularly in Tanzania and Rwanda has drawn attention to policy makers, researchers and the entire public. The study examined the factors to be considered in introducing a foreign language as a language of instruction (LOI). It also analyzed how the selection of a given foreign language to be a LOI liberates or silences learners in the learning process. It adopted document analysis where documents such as language policy, education policy, curriculum development, language studies and previous studies related to the topic under scrutiny were reviewed. It concludes that the aim is neither to ban the use of foreign languages as languages of instruction nor to ban the use of local languages or lingua franca, given the advantages attached to each medium. Rather, it intended to critically analyze how liberating and silencing is the language adopted to become a LOI in the entire learning process. The study recommends teachers and students to be allowed to code switch and translate in their language, when need arises. Being too rigid to policy statements on the LOI, only propagate teaching but not learning.
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Papers in Education and Development , 2020
The study examined pre-service teachers' preparedness to teach using a sample of final-year stude... more The study examined pre-service teachers' preparedness to teach using a sample of final-year students (n=454) in a Tanzanian teacher education university. The study measured pre-service teachers' preparedness to teach using four dimensions-internal locus of control, self-efficacy, attitude towards the teaching profession and attitude towards teaching subjects. With exceptions of relatively low teachers' attitude towards the teaching profession, results indicated that student teachers have higher levels of self-efficacy, positive internal locus of control and positive attitude towards teaching subjects. Also, a significant difference (p ˂ 0.05) was found between teaching subjects on the dimension of locus of control with social science majors having higher locus of control than science and mathematics majors. Future employment intentions had significant impacts (p ˂ 0.05) on student teachers' attitude towards teaching with those intending to work in nonteaching sector having significantly lower attitude. Regression results indicated that working with students and pre-service teachers' persistence were strong predictors of overall pre-service teachers' attitude towards teaching (R² = 0.319). Results further revealed that 40.2 % of pre-service teachers regret that they chose the teaching profession and 56.2% are not intending to work as teachers after graduation.
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Papers in Education and Development , 2020
The study was envisaged to examine how lecturers perceive critical thinking skills (CTSs) as well... more The study was envisaged to examine how lecturers perceive critical thinking skills (CTSs) as well as how they teach to develop such skills in students. The study employed a sample of 42 participants using four data collection methods namely semi-structured interview, focus group discussion, participant observation and artefacts method of data collection. Despite the extant misperceptions of what constitute CTSs among lecturers, findings indicated that lecturers perceive CTSs as skills and abilities, dispositions and skills that enable a person to perform some functions. The study concludes that developing CTSs require changes in the minds of lecturers and students. The study argues that there is no way CTSs could be developed while students are less motivated and unwilling to learn.
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CEPS Journal, 2022
Teachers enter the profession with enthusiasm for the new adventure. Unfortunately, when they sta... more Teachers enter the profession with enthusiasm for the new adventure. Unfortunately, when they start working, they encounter circumstances that give rise to stress. The 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. The 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.
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International Journal of Membrane Science and Technology
Teacher mentorship has been increasingly gaining popularity in recent years among experts in the ... more Teacher mentorship has been increasingly gaining popularity in recent years among experts in the field of education. This study examined the relevance of school-based mentorship and support on Mathematics teachers’ competence in nine regions in Tanzania. A total of 700 (46 per cent, female) educational stakeholders - mathematics teachers and tutors, secondary school students, and other educational leaders participated in the study. The findings indicated that over time, stakeholders’ understanding of mentorship and support was improved. This was realised during the midterm review when they started indicating a specific but broader conceptualisation of mentorship as an ongoing practice that can be done virtually or in person, between a knowledgeable teacher and a novice one. Furthermore, the findings highlighted that teacher mentorship and support improved their knowledge and skills, promoted teachers’ attitudes towards mathematics and improved students’ performance in Mathematics. T...
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Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice
This study investigates teacher educators’ perceptions of and challenges affecting the use of cri... more This study investigates teacher educators’ perceptions of and challenges affecting the use of critical pedagogy in higher teacher education in Tanzania. The study employed a qualitative case study design and collected in-depth data through semi-structured interviews and direct classroom observations. The findings showed that critical pedagogy is a significant approach for developing students’ abilities to do critical reflection. However, critical pedagogy demands building a friendly relationship with students and encouraging dialogic interactions; all these lead to critical reflection in return, ensuring better understanding of the subject content. Most importantly, the findings report several challenges related to the presence of crowded classes, the use of lecturing teaching style and the use of English as a language of instruction, the use of unsuitable assessment format that is university guided and lack of teaching resources. These challenges impede the effective use of critica...
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International Journal of Doctoral Studies, 2022
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Journal of Education, Humanities and Sciences (JEHS), Jun 30, 2020
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Huria: Journal of the Open University of Tanzania, 2019
Teacher trainees’ positive attitude on teaching is fast becoming a key instrument in teacher trai... more Teacher 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 observ...
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Textbooks are the most important teaching and learning resources in education in most developing ... more Textbooks 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 textbooksthat 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 knowle...
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Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal, 2021
Teachers enter the profession with enthusiasm for the new adventure. Unfortunately, when they sta... more Teachers enter the profession with enthusiasm for the new adventure. Unfortunately, when they start working, they encounter circumstances that give rise to stress. The 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. The 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 imp...
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Academic advising in higher education is a mounting field of study that requires special attentio... more Academic advising in higher education is a mounting field of study that requires special attention as it is significant for enrolled university students to persist and retain to the point of graduation. This study aims to explore the contribution of academic advisors in enhancing students’ academic achievement in higher learning institutions. Data were collected from 58 respondents, including 48 students and 10 academic advisors both from the Faculty of Education of the Dar es Salaam University College of Education in Tanzania. The data collection methods were questionnaires, focused group discussions and unstructured interviews. A majority of student respondents (67%) revealed that their academic advisors had not contributed at all to their achievement. In contrast, 33% indicated that academic advisors had made contributions. The findings also indicated that among the challenges that students encountered when seeking for advisory services included the unavailability of academic adv...
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The role of quality, qualified and effective teachers is invaluable that one may fail to come up ... more The role of quality, qualified and effective teachers is invaluable that one may fail to come up with proper expression to express the magnitude of their significance in its exactness. Through classroom interaction with students, teachers work as transmitters of knowledge, values and skills which work as tools for rural and urban transformation. Teachers provide education which works as a solution to poverty alleviation, empowerment, sustainable development and environmental challenges. Oziambo (2010) asserts that teachers are responsible for high standards in education, transmission of values and norms to students by teaching them or being models. They are at the front line of developing students’ understanding, learning and core values. Despite such teachers’ significance, teachers do not stay in the teaching cadre. Teacher retention is currently akin to a puzzle especially when Smith and Ingersoll (2004) view the decision to enter teaching by now as being related to ‘a sink or sw...
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This paper reports on the history, features, and challenges of School-Based Professional Learning... more This 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 fo...
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Thinking Skills and Creativity, 2020
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Mkwawa Journal of Education and Development, 2018
The debate on brain drain-brain circulation has been a long-lasting phenomenon of interest among ... more The debate on brain drain-brain circulation has been a long-lasting 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 ...
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Intercultural Competence, A Necessity in 21st Century Classrooms: Are Teacher Educators in Tanzania Interculturally Competent? , 2023
• Recently, teacher educators have been required to possess strong academic credentials and inter... more • Recently, teacher educators have been required to possess strong academic credentials and intercultural competencies to teach successfully. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the extent to which teacher educators possess the skills of intercultural competence. Also, the study examines the factors that influence the intercultural competence of teacher educators. A sample of 300 teacher educators selected from two Tanzanian university colleges is used. The results indicate that teacher educators had higher mean scores in the dimensions of attitude, external outcomes, internal outcomes, and skills but significantly lower mean scores in the dimension of knowledge. Furthermore, factors such as living abroad, duration of staying abroad, level of education, academics' teaching experience, and the faculty from where the academics come are significantly related to at least one dimension of intercultural competence. For instance, academics' level of education is significantly related to the attitude, knowledge, and skills dimensions of intercultural competence. Therefore, the results have far-reaching implications for policy and future research.
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Thesis Chapters by Patrick S Kavenuke
Beijing Normal University, 2018
Critical Thinking Skills (CTSs) are important in this world which is burdened with myriad of prob... more Critical Thinking Skills (CTSs) are important in this world which is burdened with myriad of problems. It is critical education which could suffice to solve such problems originating in the societies we live in. The study explored how lecturers perceive CTSs; how lecturers teach to develop CTSs in students; and what complexities lecturers encounter in teaching to develop CTSs in students. Finally, the study explored what
lecturers propose to be the best solutions for teaching to develop CTSs in students. Given the nature of the research questions, the study adopted the constructionism epistemology. Constructionism epistemology called for the use of methods such as unstructured interviews, focus group interviews, participant observation, and artifacts collection methods
of data collection. The findings indicated that the perceptions of many participants about CTSs corresponded to what the literature suggests. However, a few participants thought of CTSs as being related to criticizing others‘ views. Moreover, some participants understood CTSs as being related to the discussion of facts only. On how lecturers teach to develop CTSs in students, findings uncovered that a few lecturers teach in strategies that foster CTSs in students. Such strategies included asking well-thought-out questions, classroom dialogue and discussion, real-life and reflective examples, use of cases, and group tasks. Nevertheless, some lecturers maintained the lecturer-dominated strategy. They hardly immersed or infused any of the strategies that foster CTSs in students.
Regrettably, there are cases where lecturers kept lecturing even when they extremely had a small number of students. On the complexities that lecturers encounter when teaching to develop CTSs in students, almost all participants reported difficulties such as inadequate resources and its resultant large class size problem; the language of instruction (LOI); students‘ characteristics and untrained lecturers to mention a few. On the best solutions for developing CTSs in students, findings indicated that there are lecturer‘s level solutions such as developing "a can-do attitude" towards students, and policy-level solutions such as modifying the mode of assessment and revisiting the LOI policy statements. From the findings, I conclude that there is no way CTSs could be developed at their peak in such contexts where there are inadequate resources. Also, there is no way CTSs could be developed in such classrooms constructed in ways that call for the traditional way of teaching.
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Papers by Patrick S Kavenuke
Thesis Chapters by Patrick S Kavenuke
lecturers propose to be the best solutions for teaching to develop CTSs in students. Given the nature of the research questions, the study adopted the constructionism epistemology. Constructionism epistemology called for the use of methods such as unstructured interviews, focus group interviews, participant observation, and artifacts collection methods
of data collection. The findings indicated that the perceptions of many participants about CTSs corresponded to what the literature suggests. However, a few participants thought of CTSs as being related to criticizing others‘ views. Moreover, some participants understood CTSs as being related to the discussion of facts only. On how lecturers teach to develop CTSs in students, findings uncovered that a few lecturers teach in strategies that foster CTSs in students. Such strategies included asking well-thought-out questions, classroom dialogue and discussion, real-life and reflective examples, use of cases, and group tasks. Nevertheless, some lecturers maintained the lecturer-dominated strategy. They hardly immersed or infused any of the strategies that foster CTSs in students.
Regrettably, there are cases where lecturers kept lecturing even when they extremely had a small number of students. On the complexities that lecturers encounter when teaching to develop CTSs in students, almost all participants reported difficulties such as inadequate resources and its resultant large class size problem; the language of instruction (LOI); students‘ characteristics and untrained lecturers to mention a few. On the best solutions for developing CTSs in students, findings indicated that there are lecturer‘s level solutions such as developing "a can-do attitude" towards students, and policy-level solutions such as modifying the mode of assessment and revisiting the LOI policy statements. From the findings, I conclude that there is no way CTSs could be developed at their peak in such contexts where there are inadequate resources. Also, there is no way CTSs could be developed in such classrooms constructed in ways that call for the traditional way of teaching.
lecturers propose to be the best solutions for teaching to develop CTSs in students. Given the nature of the research questions, the study adopted the constructionism epistemology. Constructionism epistemology called for the use of methods such as unstructured interviews, focus group interviews, participant observation, and artifacts collection methods
of data collection. The findings indicated that the perceptions of many participants about CTSs corresponded to what the literature suggests. However, a few participants thought of CTSs as being related to criticizing others‘ views. Moreover, some participants understood CTSs as being related to the discussion of facts only. On how lecturers teach to develop CTSs in students, findings uncovered that a few lecturers teach in strategies that foster CTSs in students. Such strategies included asking well-thought-out questions, classroom dialogue and discussion, real-life and reflective examples, use of cases, and group tasks. Nevertheless, some lecturers maintained the lecturer-dominated strategy. They hardly immersed or infused any of the strategies that foster CTSs in students.
Regrettably, there are cases where lecturers kept lecturing even when they extremely had a small number of students. On the complexities that lecturers encounter when teaching to develop CTSs in students, almost all participants reported difficulties such as inadequate resources and its resultant large class size problem; the language of instruction (LOI); students‘ characteristics and untrained lecturers to mention a few. On the best solutions for developing CTSs in students, findings indicated that there are lecturer‘s level solutions such as developing "a can-do attitude" towards students, and policy-level solutions such as modifying the mode of assessment and revisiting the LOI policy statements. From the findings, I conclude that there is no way CTSs could be developed at their peak in such contexts where there are inadequate resources. Also, there is no way CTSs could be developed in such classrooms constructed in ways that call for the traditional way of teaching.