Enhancing teachers' competencies on learner-centred approaches throughlearning study in Tanzanian schools

Abstract

Despite being exposed to the Learner-Centred Approach (LCA) through

traditional teacher professional development since 2000, teachers in Tanzania have

generally failed to implement LCA in secondary schools. However, previous studies

on the learning study in different parts of the world have shown encouraging results

in developing teachers’ competencies. This study investigates how the learning study

guided by the variation theory can enhance teachers’ competencies using the LCA in

Tanzania secondary schools. It addresses two questions: what are the changes of

teachers’ understanding of LCA through learning study rounds in a Tanzanian

secondary school? And, what are the changes of teachers’ capability of

implementing LCA through learning study rounds in bringing about student learning

in a Tanzanian secondary school?

A group of three teachers (John, Benja & Peter) in a school implemented

learning studies for a period of one year. All forms two (N= 255) and three (N=240)

students took part in three research lessons. The study adopted case study and

phenomenographic research approaches. It used teachers’ interview protocols, lesson video recordings, lesson preparatory meetings, teacher’s journals, and students’ tests

as research instruments. The teachers’ experiences and implemention of the LCA

were studied before and during the three rounds of learning studies. Data were

analysed using variation framework and SPSS version 16.0 for students’ tests.

The study has two main findings. First, teachers involved in the three

learning study rounds changed their understanding of LCA. They changed from

seeing LCA as methodological (before the learning study) to treating it as subject

content and even as far as seeing it as object of learning (during the learning studies)

orientations. These changes were gradual and differed slightly, depending on the

particular aspect(s) (the method, the content or the object of learning) a teacher

focused more on than other aspects at a given time.

Second, guided by the variation theory through learning studies, teachers’

capability to implement LCA improved progressively in slightly different ways,

which in turn improved student learning. The teachers changed from simply making

classroom pedagogical arrangements before the learning study to engaging the

learners in either the content or the object of learning and enabling them to discern

critical aspects of the objects of learning in terms of variation and invariance of those

aspects during the learning studies.

The study concludes that implementing learning study - guided by the

variation theory - may be effective in enhancing teachers’ ways of conceiving and

practicing LCA with a primary focus on student learning. In addition, as teachers

increase their understanding of learning study and the use of variation theory they

may advance their understandings in designing and teaching LCA lessons, thereby

increasing possibilities for student learning. Such a conclusion lends credence to

the variation theory which purports that powerful ways of acting originates from

powerful ways of seeing. It also extends this theory to teacher learning of the LCA

pedagogy.