DEVELOPING AN ASSESSMENT MODEL FOR TEACHERS IN TANZANIA: IMPLICATIONS OF THE KOREAN TEACHING PROFESSION

Abstract

This study was designed to explore how teacher educators in Korea and Tanzania assess student learning and consequently develop an assessment model for teacher educators in Tanzania. The three questions that guided the study are: First, how do teacher educators use various assessment methods and tools to facilitate student teachers’ active learning in the classroom?; second, what makes a teacher educator an effective teacher and assessor?; and third, how can teacher educators relate their assessment practices to their teaching and their students’ learning? Data collected aimed to achieve three objectives: Review the ways in which teacher educators use various assessment methods and tools to facilitate student teachers’ active learning in the classroom; synthesize factors that account for the effectiveness of teaching and assessment of teacher educators; and develop an alternative model for proper alignment of teaching, learning and assessment in the classroom. The study participants included eight purposively selected teacher educators: two from Korea and six from Tanzania. Each of the eight teacher educators filled in a self-administered questionnaire prior to participating in an in-depth interview. The interviews and their corresponding questionnaires were used to collect data that would be used together with the literature analysis to draw useful results for this study. Data analysis from in-depth interviews involved thematic coding and generating themes and sub-themes by employing MAXQDA software and abiding by the seven-stage analytic process and the grounded theory process. The findings revealed that teacher educators perceive assessment as a one-shot activity in terms of traditional tests and examinations that are conducted periodically. They do not consider it to be an ongoing process aimed at understanding and improving student learning. The findings also indicate that although many teacher educators perceive learning as a process that involves active interaction between a teacher and learners to produce knowledge, their teaching and assessment practices are still largely based on the less-participatory approaches like lecturing, which render students passive recipients of knowledge and skills transmitted by teacher educators. The study further revealed that teacher effectiveness does not depend on dispositional factors only but rather on situational factors. Situational factors are such as institutional support through conducive working conditions, provision of relevant and adequate teaching and learning resources and a realistic number of students to be enrolled in each class. Another significant finding is that teaching, learning and assessment are consistently disconnectedly performed instead of being conducted concurrently in classroom activities. Finally, the study highlighted that, notwithstanding that the teaching profession in Korea owes its success to factors such as sociocultural legacies, strong political will, coordinated educational policies, and financial backing, the educational system as a whole is dogged by unbridled competition and an overemphasis of assessments for grading purposes rather than on improving learning. Several conclusions are made, of which one is the need to develop a core course for student teachers so that the assessment model proposed by this study can be piloted. Suggestions for further research include exploration of what student teachers learn about classroom teaching, and particularly assessments, in their teacher preparation programs, and what they actually know about classroom assessment.