Journal of Education and Practice, 2013; 4 (1): 157-163
This article is based on the study which sought to investigate the effectiveness of Teaching Practice in improving
student teachers’ teaching skills in Tanzania. The study was designed to find how Teaching Practice was
organized by the teacher training universities and whether the Teaching Practice was effective in improving
student teachers’ teaching skills. The qualitative research approach was adopted and the study was conducted in
Iringa, Morogoro, Dar es Salaam, and Kilimanjaro regions of Tanzania Mainland. A total of 191 student teachers
were involved in the study. The findings indicated that the duration spent for the Teaching Practice was
inadequate for student teachers to acquire the skills required for effective teaching. Furthermore, the supervision
of student teachers during the Teaching Practice was overall, ineffective as the supervisors were not flexible
enough to guide, advise, and discuss with student teachers on the strengths and weaknesses revealed during the
teaching. Regarding the effectiveness of the Teaching Practice, 76% of the respondents indicated that Teaching
Practice was ineffective in improving their teaching skills. Since the majority of respondents indicated that they
did not benefit much from the Teaching Practice, there is need for the responsible authorities to review the
procedures for carrying out Teaching Practice in order to improve the quality of teachers.
Keywords: Effectiveness, Teaching Practice, Teaching skills, Tanzania