Doctoral Thesis
This study sought to enhance the School-Based Instructional Supervision Capacity of the school leaders for the implementation of Competence-Based Curriculum in Zanzibar. It was conducted in the West Urban Region, and particularly at the Urban and West B district schools in Zanzibar. The study was prompted by the massive empirical evidence from the literature suggesting that the implementation of the CBC in Tanzania remains problematic despite its operation for nearly fifteen years now. Findings from the preliminary investigation indicated that school leaders failed to guide teachers on competence-based instructional planning, competence-based instructional delivery in the classroom, and competence-based assessment. Thus, intervention research was deemed necessary to empower school leaders to enhance their School-Based Instructional Supervision Capacity. The study employed an embedded intervention design as its overall design. However, phenomenography design was used in the process of constructing the desired intervention materials, while a single-group quasi-experimental design was used to measure the effectiveness of the constructed intervention materials. The study was underpinned by a pragmatist research philosophy that called for the use of both mixed-methods research approach. The sample of the study involved 33 section leaders, 15 head teachers, 5 experts, and 118 teachers. The study employed interviews, questionnaires, observations, and document reviews to collect data. Data gathered through interviews and observations were thematically analyzed, while those gathered through documentary reviews were subjected to content analysis. The data gathered through questionnaires was analysed descriptively to develop the mean, standard deviation, and inferential statistics (i.e., paired sample t-test, and factor analysis). The findings of the study suggest that section leaders’ capacity to supervise the implementation of CBC improved significantly after the developed intervention. This was elucidated by the paired sample t-test mean difference of SLCS scores before and after the intervention as 18.36, with a p-value of <0.0001. Similarly, the mean difference of STCS scores before and after the intervention was 14.39, with a p-value of <0.0001. This means that there was a significantly higher capacity of teachers for implementing CBC after the intervention compared to before the intervention was executed to the section leaders. Based on the study findings, it is concluded that SB-ISMs have significant potential in improving section leaders’ capacity to supervise the implementation of CBC. The study recommends the adoption of the guidelines and orientation of school leaders on CBC supervision since they are the immediate supervisors of teachers.