Findings from a trial promoting education practices for secure and supportive classroom teaching in six primary schools in Tanzania

• In Event: Education and security: Global learning for sustainable development

Proposal

This case study reports on findings from a research and scholarly collaboration with a scholar from Tanzania working with the development of teacher training in Tanzania, and a US based NGO, School to school international, working with the development of education in low-income countries. In the conceptual framework used, education is understood as socially constructed. The instruction technique developed and evaluated in this study, builds on formative evaluation practices. Results were analyzed with the help of a questionnaires and interviews as elaborated in the following. Findings from this study and analysis of the contribution of the use of the ability grouping method in classroom instruction contributes to research informed professional development of teachers in primary schools, notably for comparable contexts.

Teachers in primary schools in Africa are often faced with class sizes of 100 students or more, making it difficult to manage instruction or adapt the curriculum to the needs of individual students. Consequently, most teachers rely on whole-class instruction techniques, which often leaves students feeling nervous about “getting the wrong answer” and facing the ridicule of their classmates, or even their teachers. To address these issues, we introduced teachers in Tanzania to “flexible ability grouping,” a strategy where teachers organize students into learning groups, conduct regular assessments in those groups, then reorganize students based on assessment results. Then we tracked whether teachers had adopted the new strategy as intended and interviewed them about their experiences. Ninety-four percent of teachers adopted the new strategy to some extent, though most struggled with calculating assessment results and making appropriate regrouping decisions. Teachers reported high levels of appreciation for the strategy, noting that it made teaching and continuous assessment more manageable. Teachers also reported that their students found learning more engaging, meaningful, even fun. This paper examines how flexible ability grouping enhances student safety, participation, and equity, transforming classrooms into supportive learning environments.

Authors

• Amani Nicolas, Joshua Foundation

• Mark Mark Lynd Lynd, School-to-School International