title: Secondary education expansion in Tanzania:  Policy and practice implications for teachers’ sense of efficacy

authors: Lawrent, Godlove

subjects: Enactment plan

abstract: Since the introduction of Tanzania’s secondary education expansion policy in 2004 student performance has declined significantly. This trend led me to hypothesise that there may have been a decline in teacher efficacy. The present study investigated the influence of the policy and its implementation on teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs, because these beliefs impact on the quality of teaching. The study used a mixed-method approach, with a focus on case studies. Interviews, questionnaires and documentary reviews were used for gathering data. Ninety-nine secondary school teachers from four schools in the Iringa region of Tanzania participated in this research. Social cognitive theory was employed as a conceptual framework for the project. While inductive procedures were used for analysing the interview data, the questionnaire data were analysed via the Statistical Package for Social Sciences Software (SPSS) before being tabulated and graphed. 

Findings indicated that strategies intended to ensure the successful enactment of the expansion policy were not fully implemented nor targets met. In a number of ways this adversely affected the ability of teachers to go about their work and, consequently, educational outcomes for students. Overall, evidence from this study suggests that the manner in which the expansion policy was enacted and implemented contributed to the erosion of teacher professional identity and social standing, particularly in relation to self-efficacy. This produced further vicious cycles of effects and consequences. Factors associated with school staffing, school infrastructures, resources for teaching, relationships with the community and poor academic standards of enrolled students emerged as central contributors to this negative situation. An analysis of quantitative data strongly suggested that the expansion policy was implemented poorly, which was detrimental to teacher efficacy and, ironically, undermined the policy itself. 

This research adds to a growing body of literature on the sources of teachers’ self-efficacy. Firstly, the study identifies evidence which indicates that social persuasion is one of the most important contributors to social self-efficacy. It also identifies factors which reinforce a view of mastery experiences as the most influential source of self-efficacy. Secondly, the study points out the causes of teachers’ negative emotional states, including factors outside of the school environment. Thirdly, the study found that certain factors which were emphasized by Bandura as having impact on only one specific source of self-efficacy actually have an impact on more than one source of self-efficacy. 

Analysis of the research findings generated three major policy recommendations for helping teachers develop self-efficacy: promoting professional learning; empowering parents and education authority figures; and improving teaching and learning environments. The study also indicates areas for further research in factors related to teacher efficacy in Tanzania. These include: teaching practices in new schools created under the policy; the extent to which the curricula of university teacher education courses influence self-efficacy in professional practice; and how the policy impacts upon the self-efficacy of students as learners.

text: Secondary education expansion in Tanzania:  Policy and practice implications for teachers’ sense of efficacy Since the introduction of Tanzania’s secondary education expansion policy in 2004 student performance has declined significantly. This trend led me to hypothesise that there may have been a decline in teacher efficacy. The present study investigated the influence of the policy and its implementation on teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs, because these beliefs impact on the quality of teaching. The study used a mixed-method approach, with a focus on case studies. Interviews, questionnaires and documentary reviews were used for gathering data. Ninety-nine secondary school teachers from four schools in the Iringa region of Tanzania participated in this research. Social cognitive theory was employed as a conceptual framework for the project. While inductive procedures were used for analysing the interview data, the questionnaire data were analysed via the Statistical Package for Social Sciences Software (SPSS) before being tabulated and graphed. 

Findings indicated that strategies intended to ensure the successful enactment of the expansion policy were not fully implemented nor targets met. In a number of ways this adversely affected the ability of teachers to go about their work and, consequently, educational outcomes for students. Overall, evidence from this study suggests that the manner in which the expansion policy was enacted and implemented contributed to the erosion of teacher professional identity and social standing, particularly in relation to self-efficacy. This produced further vicious cycles of effects and consequences. Factors associated with school staffing, school infrastructures, resources for teaching, relationships with the community and poor academic standards of enrolled students emerged as central contributors to this negative situation. An analysis of quantitative data strongly suggested that the expansion policy was implemented poorly, which was detrimental to teacher efficacy and, ironically, undermined the policy itself. 

This research adds to a growing body of literature on the sources of teachers’ self-efficacy. Firstly, the study identifies evidence which indicates that social persuasion is one of the most important contributors to social self-efficacy. It also identifies factors which reinforce a view of mastery experiences as the most influential source of self-efficacy. Secondly, the study points out the causes of teachers’ negative emotional states, including factors outside of the school environment. Thirdly, the study found that certain factors which were emphasized by Bandura as having impact on only one specific source of self-efficacy actually have an impact on more than one source of self-efficacy. 

Analysis of the research findings generated three major policy recommendations for helping teachers develop self-efficacy: promoting professional learning; empowering parents and education authority figures; and improving teaching and learning environments. The study also indicates areas for further research in factors related to teacher efficacy in Tanzania. These include: teaching practices in new schools created under the policy; the extent to which the curricula of university teacher education courses influence self-efficacy in professional practice; and how the policy impacts upon the self-efficacy of students as learners.

year: 2018

title: Work hardening of quaternary powder metallurgy Ti alloys

authors: Al-hajiri, M

abstract: The concurrent addition of Al as α stabiliser and Nb and Cu or Mn as β stabilisers was used to design new powder metallurgy quaternary Ti alloys and investigate their manufacturability and consequent performance. It is found that the powder blend's compressibility decreases with the total amount of alloying elements due to the characteristics of the powders used. Consequently, the sintered density of the quaternary Ti alloys decreases and slightly higher values are achieved if Mn instead of Cu is used, despite the higher diffusivity of Cu at the sintering temperature. The quaternary Ti alloys are characterised by a lamellar microstructure comprising α grain boundaries and α+β lamellae where the amount and type of alloying elements determine the coarseness of the microstructural features. This results in stronger and harder but less ductile quaternary Ti alloys for higher alloying elements contents and for stronger β stabilisers, although of their overall elastoplastic behaviour. Because of their lamellar microstructure, the quaternary Ti alloys show similar deformation behaviour but the actual work hardening rate is governed by the fineness of the microstructure.

text: Work hardening of quaternary powder metallurgy Ti alloys The concurrent addition of Al as α stabiliser and Nb and Cu or Mn as β stabilisers was used to design new powder metallurgy quaternary Ti alloys and investigate their manufacturability and consequent performance. It is found that the powder blend's compressibility decreases with the total amount of alloying elements due to the characteristics of the powders used. Consequently, the sintered density of the quaternary Ti alloys decreases and slightly higher values are achieved if Mn instead of Cu is used, despite the higher diffusivity of Cu at the sintering temperature. The quaternary Ti alloys are characterised by a lamellar microstructure comprising α grain boundaries and α+β lamellae where the amount and type of alloying elements determine the coarseness of the microstructural features. This results in stronger and harder but less ductile quaternary Ti alloys for higher alloying elements contents and for stronger β stabilisers, although of their overall elastoplastic behaviour. Because of their lamellar microstructure, the quaternary Ti alloys show similar deformation behaviour but the actual work hardening rate is governed by the fineness of the microstructure.

year: 2024-04-01

title: Visitors' satisfaction with heritage sites in New Zealand: Causes and complexities, clusters and causes

authors: Trinh, Thi Thu

subjects: Heritage Tourism

abstract: The thesis presents findings from a survey of over 1,000 visitors at three New Zealand heritage sites. These sites were Te Puia, the Rotorua Bathhouse Museum and the Rangiriri Battlefield Interpretation Centre. All three represent a key period in New Zealand’s history from the period of approximately 1840 to 1900, but in the case of Te Puia there is also a continuing contemporary cultural importance. This last site, located in Rotorua, was founded as the Maori Arts and Crafts Institute and was established to perpetuate Maori tradition skills in areas such as carving and weaving. Its location was in part determined by the volcanic nature of the valley, long inhabited by members of Te Arawa tribal people. The site has a strong connection with tourism as Te Arawa have entertained tourists from the mid-nineteenth century in the volcanic area. The site therefore represents a tourism site from the perspective of history, culture and natural heritage. The Bathhouse Museum represents a period of late colonial architecture while the third site, the Rangiriri Battlefield is based on the remnants of the Pa (Maori fortifications) that was the site of a battle between the colonial government forces and the Maori Kingi movement on November 23rd 1840.

The motive for the research was to provide a profile of visitors for the respective sites and their management, and then to assess to what degree socio-demographics might be explanatory variables in determining future visitation. The core theories being employed revolved around concepts of levels of interest in heritage and historic sites, the intellectual search for knowledge, and the degree to which people became involved in the activity of heritage site visitation. The work was driven by the finding that only about 11 per cent of visits to cultural tourism sites were ‘purposeful’ tourists as defined by McKercher and Du Cros (2002). Being purposeful implies having specific degrees of interest, of becoming involved and possibly seeking meanings that implied senses of identity. That is, self-awareness accrued from having a better understanding of the past as a means of knowing about the present. This conceptualisation implies use of the theories of involvement, benefits and self-awareness, and the managerial aspects of interpretation.  Normally such an approach has been seen by many researchers as a determinant of satisfaction, but in this thesis satisfaction is not seen as simply an end to a process. Rather, this thesis argues that to be satisfied entails not only cognitive and affective components, but also the conative. That conative component can include making recommendations to others, making visits to other heritage sites, or joining organisations associated with heritage sites such as the New Zealand Historic Place Trust. These form key themes in the literature review.

Unfortunately, while these premises emerged from the literature review and informed the hypotheses that are later described in the thesis, they were not wholly supported by the data. It is suggested that one reason for this, from a statistical perspective, was that measures used were subject to multi-collinearity and auto-correlation – put simply, many of the variables are not independent from each other. For example, it is suggested that satisfaction is actually enhanced by subsequently being able to make recommendations to friends and others; that the act of making a recommendation enhances one’s own self in both the eyes of that friend or through an enhanced self- perception of being helpful, and thus auto-correlation may exist between these variables.

This realisation thus leads, in the conclusions of Chapter Eight, to new suggestions for potential future researchers concerning ways of looking at the nature of involvement that draw on distinctions between situational and enduring involvement. Finally, it also needs to be noted that tourists are not lay historians, but are the makers of their holidays, and hence the debate is contextualised within the act of being on holiday, which itself is a period of escape and relaxation for many. Hence the relationships being examined in this thesis are complex, interactive and yet rewarding to untangle.

text: Visitors' satisfaction with heritage sites in New Zealand: Causes and complexities, clusters and causes The thesis presents findings from a survey of over 1,000 visitors at three New Zealand heritage sites. These sites were Te Puia, the Rotorua Bathhouse Museum and the Rangiriri Battlefield Interpretation Centre. All three represent a key period in New Zealand’s history from the period of approximately 1840 to 1900, but in the case of Te Puia there is also a continuing contemporary cultural importance. This last site, located in Rotorua, was founded as the Maori Arts and Crafts Institute and was established to perpetuate Maori tradition skills in areas such as carving and weaving. Its location was in part determined by the volcanic nature of the valley, long inhabited by members of Te Arawa tribal people. The site has a strong connection with tourism as Te Arawa have entertained tourists from the mid-nineteenth century in the volcanic area. The site therefore represents a tourism site from the perspective of history, culture and natural heritage. The Bathhouse Museum represents a period of late colonial architecture while the third site, the Rangiriri Battlefield is based on the remnants of the Pa (Maori fortifications) that was the site of a battle between the colonial government forces and the Maori Kingi movement on November 23rd 1840.

The motive for the research was to provide a profile of visitors for the respective sites and their management, and then to assess to what degree socio-demographics might be explanatory variables in determining future visitation. The core theories being employed revolved around concepts of levels of interest in heritage and historic sites, the intellectual search for knowledge, and the degree to which people became involved in the activity of heritage site visitation. The work was driven by the finding that only about 11 per cent of visits to cultural tourism sites were ‘purposeful’ tourists as defined by McKercher and Du Cros (2002). Being purposeful implies having specific degrees of interest, of becoming involved and possibly seeking meanings that implied senses of identity. That is, self-awareness accrued from having a better understanding of the past as a means of knowing about the present. This conceptualisation implies use of the theories of involvement, benefits and self-awareness, and the managerial aspects of interpretation.  Normally such an approach has been seen by many researchers as a determinant of satisfaction, but in this thesis satisfaction is not seen as simply an end to a process. Rather, this thesis argues that to be satisfied entails not only cognitive and affective components, but also the conative. That conative component can include making recommendations to others, making visits to other heritage sites, or joining organisations associated with heritage sites such as the New Zealand Historic Place Trust. These form key themes in the literature review.

Unfortunately, while these premises emerged from the literature review and informed the hypotheses that are later described in the thesis, they were not wholly supported by the data. It is suggested that one reason for this, from a statistical perspective, was that measures used were subject to multi-collinearity and auto-correlation – put simply, many of the variables are not independent from each other. For example, it is suggested that satisfaction is actually enhanced by subsequently being able to make recommendations to friends and others; that the act of making a recommendation enhances one’s own self in both the eyes of that friend or through an enhanced self- perception of being helpful, and thus auto-correlation may exist between these variables.

This realisation thus leads, in the conclusions of Chapter Eight, to new suggestions for potential future researchers concerning ways of looking at the nature of involvement that draw on distinctions between situational and enduring involvement. Finally, it also needs to be noted that tourists are not lay historians, but are the makers of their holidays, and hence the debate is contextualised within the act of being on holiday, which itself is a period of escape and relaxation for many. Hence the relationships being examined in this thesis are complex, interactive and yet rewarding to untangle.

year: 2013