Professional Development through Teacher Collaboration: An Approach to Enhance Teaching and Learning in Science and Mathematics in Tanzania

Abstract

This study introduces ‘teachers’ collaboration’ as an approach to teachers’ professional development geared at enhancing science and mathematics teaching in Tanzania secondary schools. Teachers’ professional development through teachers’ collaboration has been reported to be effective for the improvement of schools’ performance and students’ learning outcomes in all curriculum subjects. In this study, various researches and theoretical papers about teachers’ collaboration were gathered and sorted out according to the type of collaboration adopted in each. From these studies, four main forms of teachers’ collaboration for professional development were identified. These forms of collaboration include; community of practice, lesson study group, professional learning communities and teacher design teams. Reviewed literatures have shown that the four collaboration approaches are effective for teachers’ improvement of their teaching practices which in turn had impact on students’ learning outcomes. Studies from around the world have shown that, teachers’ collaboration has impact on teachers’ competencies, confidence and attitude towards science and mathematics teaching.

Keywords:

• science
• mathematics
• teacher collaboration
• teacher professional development