Department of Language Studies

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Browsing Department of Language Studies by Author "Chiwamba, S. V."

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    An examination of the congruency between the University teacher training contents and secondary school contents in Tanzania: the case of Sokoine University of Agriculture
    (2016) Komba, S. C.; Chiwamba, S. V.
    It is ideally expected that after student teachers have gone through comprehensive curricula contents, they should possess the necessary competences and skills to enable them deliver effectively as teachers. However, some student teachers in Tanzania have expressed their concerns that some of the contents found in the curricula for teacher training programmes do not link with the contents taught in secondary schools. Therefore, this study was designed to examine the congruency between the contents student teachers cover during their studies at Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), one of the Tanzanian teacher training institutions, and contents taught in Tanzanian secondary schools. The study involved a randomly obtained sample of 181 third year students, pursuing various teacher education degree programmes. The study adopted a cross-sectional research design in which a set of questionnaire, which consisted of both open and closed-ended questions, was administered to the sampled respondents. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS in which frequencies and percentages of responses to the questions presented in the questionnaire were computed to answer research questions advanced for this study. The findings were as follows: First, the majority (66.9%) of student teachers felt that there was a congruency between the University contents and secondary school contents and about one third (33.1%) of student teachers felt that the congruency did not exist. Secondly, the majority (95%) of student teachers felt that the contents of education courses taught at the University were applicable in real school situations and the minority (5%) did not feel so. Third, the majority (91.7%) of student teachers felt that the teacher training programmes offered at SUA had enabled them to acquire sufficient classroom teaching skills and basic theories in education. Fourth, some challenges facing teacher training programmes offered at SUA, as reported by the respondents, included irrelevant contents in some university courses, inadequate infrastructures, and lack of opportunities for practice, to mention but a few. Based on these findings, it is recommended that whenever an opportunity to review the existing teacher training programmes comes, the exercise should be preceded with needs analysis to help determine if the existing programmes adequately address the needs of the teaching profession for which the student teachers are being prepared.
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    Towards improving the supervision of postgraduate students in Tanzanian higher learning institutions
    (International Journal of Research Studies in Language Learning, 2016) Komba, S. C.; Chiwamba, S. V.
    In recent years, Tanzanian higher learning institutions have attracted many candidates to pursue various postgraduate programmes. However, some higher education stakeholders have echoed their concerns that the number of postgraduate students who successfully graduate from the institutions is low, despite the increase in postgraduate enrollment. Supervisors have consistently been identified by postgraduate students as the main source of either delaying graduation or dropping from the postgraduate studies. This study was conducted in Tanzania, involving 76 academic staff, including 42 males and 34 females, from four public universities and two private universities. The study was designed to achieve two specific objectives: First, to examine the challenges of supervising postgraduate students as experienced by supervisors in Tanzanian higher learning institutions; and secondly, to recommend best practices for improving the supervision of postgraduate students in Tanzanian higher learning institutions. The findings indicated that the supervision of postgraduate students in Tanzanian higher learning institutions faces numerous challenges which could be categorized as student-related and administrative challenges. This calls for collaborative efforts among higher education stakeholders to ensure quality graduates who can contribute significantly to the development of their societies. In view of the findings of this study, it is recommended, among others, that the higher learning institutions should improve administrative and support services to enable both supervisors and supervisees perform their responsibilities effectively.