THE UNIVERSITY OF DODOMA
COED, DEPARTMENT OF EFCE
FE 111 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION NOTES
MODULE THREE: THE CONCEPT OF TEACHING AND FORMS OF EDUCATION
The concept of teaching
Teaching is derived from the verb “teach”. Its origin is from Germanic word “zeichen” which means a
“sign”. A sign is a mark used to indicate, guide or show something. Eg road sign, mathematic sign
etc. On the other way teaching was regarded as being a guide (shows the way) as a result, a
teacher was viewed as guide. Viewing a teacher as a guide is not only a view from western
tradition but has similar meaning in African tradition. In traditional societies the term teaching
was conceived to be guidance or direction
Socrates philosophical view on Teaching Socrates was talking to his friend Meno “look here
Meno, am not teaching the boy but only assist him to recollect what presumably he already knew
or could recover or relieve from past experience or encounters”.
What is teaching today?
Teaching can be regarded as a systematic, rational and organized process of facilitating learning. It is a
process of assisting learners to develop knowledge skills, attitudes and values for their livelihood.
Teaching in today world is regarded as coaching (developing talents). Teaching is considered a
process of supporting learners to construct ideas rather than delivering knowledge. Teachers are
obliged to provide supportive activities (scaffolding) to enable learners to learn to their maximum
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THE GENERAL MEANING OF TEACHING
The General meaning of teaching can be viewed using a model proposed by Aristotle in which any
human activity could be analyzed
The final cause
• Every activity is said to have its final cause
• What is important here is what the purpose of the activity like teaching is.
• The main purpose of teaching is to bring about learning.(facilitating teaching)
• It should be measured in term of what the learners can do (outcome)
Efficient cause
• Every activity has an agent that fulfill (who brings about teaching)
• Obviously is a teacher who tries to bring about learning and
• Learner needs cooperation with teacher so as learning to take place.
• The teacher needs to organize the learners and Teaching and learning resources
• Formal cause
• Everything or activity has a form or structure (structure of teaching)
• Special characteristics of teaching
• what is special about a teacher is to teach in a systematic way
• Preparation (scheme, lesson plan)
• In a lesson plan there is introduction, lesson development, reflection assessment
• Material cause
• Everything has matter
• That is material cause this can be explained as it is used in a metaphysical sense
• What teaching is dealing with
• More specifically a teacher deals with minds of learners to their wills, interests needs, emotions,
abilities, attitude etc.
Four Principles teaching and learning
1. Transitivity
• Transitivity refers to the situation where the action from a subject is brought to bear direct impact
on an object. In most cases the teacher (subject) communicate the subject matter directly to the
learner (object)
• In normal human interaction, transitivity implies an action upon someone to produce a certain
results in response. If teaching and learning process misses either the subject (teacher) or object
(learner) then there will be no transitivity, no dynamic mutuality, no learning and eventually no
learning outcome
Teacher Learner
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2. Triadicity
• The teaching learning process is a dynamic communicative interaction within a triadic
relationship
• The interaction is triadic in the sense that it is first between the teacher and the subject matter
• Then between the learner and the subject matter
• Finally verbal intercommunication between the two in relation to the subject matter.
Teacher
Subject matter Learner
3. Symmetry
• Symmetry is simply a dialogical relationship that is enhanced when the two human part of the
triadic relationship model communicate the subject matter to each other.
• Each part is motivated to respond to the other on account of the relevance of the subject matter.
• It stress on discussion and Socratic methods of teaching
• The asymmetric pedagogical relationship between the teacher and the learner is put in place when
the teacher regards him/her self as a partner or a fellow learner.
• Though the teacher may at time and place have some information or worked-out solution to give
the student, he/she should at this stage turn it out to become new raw information to be processed
in the class.
Teacher Learner
4. Praxis
• The term praxis in this context refers to the practical action aiming at supporting and improving
learning
• Praxis is an inventive way of learning that encourages students to have a thoughtful reflection and
action upon the world in order to transform it
• refers to the involvement of learners in concrete activities that enable them to „experience‟ what
they are learning about and the opportunity to reflect on those activities.
• Learning is based on both real work/life experiences and structured experiences that simulate or
approximate real work/life.
• It involve events such as field experience, community service, action learning, teaching practice
internship, and other work practices etc
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• It compliment the three domains of learning (cognitive, affective and psychomotor)
Roles of an Effective Teacher
• Should be optimistic (hopeful, positive, confident and possess positive attitude towards His/her
learners, Him/her self Parents or community Subject Profession and teaching itself
• Should be a role model (diligent, honest, moral, have good manner/conduct, hard worker
• A flexible and a lifelong learner (eager to learn more, cope with changes,
• Sound knowledge of the subject matter and pedagogical skills
• Motivating his/her learners (inspire learners to enjoy learning themselves and use rewards)
• Brings about intended learning outcome
• Effective teachers display warmth and respond positively to student questions.
• Effective teachers are enthusiastic (self motivated to work with students)
FORMS OF EDUCATION
1. Formal education
• Formal education refers to fulltime, hierarchically structured and chronologically graded
education system operating from primary school to university.
• it is a systematic, organized education that is structured and administered according to a given set
of laws and norms
• It is presenting a rather rigid curriculum as
• regards objectives, content and methodology
• Characteristics of formal education
• Systematic instruction, teaching and training by professional teachers
• Teaching is usually carefully supervised by an external administrative body
• It is usually conducted in a classroom setting
• The content is usually predetermined by the teacher or other persons in authority
• Often end in formal testing/examinations and certification
• It has time specification and a specific timetable is followed
• There are special entry requirements and admission criteria
• It is employment oriented
• It fosters uncritical thinking
• It nurtures the status quo and discourages deviation
2. Non formal education
• Refers to any organized educational activity operating outside the established formal education
system targeting certain groups of population.
• It is an organized and semi-organized educational and training activities that operate outside the
regular structure and routines of the formal educational system
• It is aimed at serving a great variety of learning needs of different sub-groups of the population,
both young and old.
• The system is flexibility with regard to various aspects of education i.e., admission, curricular,
place of instruction, mode of instruction and the time and duration of instruction
• Non-formal education includes,
• agricultural extension and farmer training programmes
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• adult literacy programs,
• occupational skill training given outside the formal system, example on-the-job training;
• Entrepreneurship seminars/workshops.
• Agricultural extension and farmer training programmes;
• Other extension services;
• Adolescent and adult literacy programme;
• Community education and community programmes of instruction in health, nutrition, family
planning etc.
• Characteristics of non-formal education
• It is a lifelong with learning integrated with life and work. Life is upgraded and enriched by
learning;
• It is motivated by individual growth, self-renewal and maximizing human potential
• It enables an individual to understand his own needs, the environmental situation, the societal
goals and mutual relationship;
• It has flexible point of entry and exit, re-entry and re-exit.
• It focus immediate usefulness of the education for the student‟s personal and professional growth
• It develops critical thinking and self-reliant awareness.
• It is a participatory education system
• Examples of non-formal agencies
• Literacy programmes, example; COBET and ICBAE-Tanzania; COPE-Uganda.
• Experimental schools
• Teachers resource centres
• Adult education centres
3. Informal education
• It refers to the process of acquiring knowledge, skills and attitudes from day to day experiences as
one interacts with his/her environment.
• Much of the learning that goes on is almost conscious, as with those things the child learns from
his family, friends, experience and environment.
• It is more haphazard than the other forms of learning and is not associated with the award of
certificates
• On the other hand Informal education is the lifelong process by which every person acquires and
accumulates knowledge, skills and attitudes and insights from daily experiences and exposure to
the environment, at home, at work, at play
• Agencies of informal education include the following;
• Home/family; Peer groups; Religious groups; Meetings; Associations; Library; Museums; Mass
media like- TV, magazines and radio programmes etc.
• Characteristics of informal education
• It is almost incidental/occurs spontaneously
• The leaning process is unsystematic
• Informal learning is never organized
• Is not formally coordinated and has no formal stipulated purpose
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• Has no formal curriculum
• It is a lifelong learning
MODULE SIX: EDUCATION FOR SELF RELIENCE (ESR)
Education with work (EWW)
Work and education are inseparable because they are mutually related to each other.
Any form of education has in most cases resulted from some kinds of work or some kind of labour
process. Therefore, the concept of work in relation to the process of education is taken to mean
“cultural transmission”. Culture is the sum total of man‟s ways of living and acting. Education
process involve the development and transmission of mans ideas, knowledge and skills values,
customs and attitudes from one generation to the next. It is undeniable fact that within the culture
one distinctive feature is „work‟(labour process)
Philosophical bases of integrating education with work
Dewey (1897) observed that, education is not separate from life but it is life in itself. Therefore, the
schools should produce on the child‟s mind the typical doings and activities of the wider, more
mature society he or she is finally going to enter. The school should be treated as a miniature of the
whole society. EWW originated from socialist ideology inclination and point of view. He also
emphasized that the ed process in school should be centered on work and activities on the concrete,
just as adult community work on the concrete (real life). Nyerere 1967 argue that the ed must
prepare young people for the work they will be called upon to do in the society which exists in
Tanzania especially a rural society. The effort of the people should be in village development that is
to say carpenters, farmers, fishermen etc, Dewey and Nyerere worked their life time towards
promoting the integration of education with work. They argued that while there cannot be education
without work (which gives it meaning), there cannot be work that is worthwhile that is not drawn
on proper and relevant education (that gives it creative and social meaning). In the same way, there
is no education and production without education and work
Education with Productive Work
EWP may refer to any kind of socially or economically useful activities that students undertake in
school. It involves community service as in the case of participating in village development projects
and voluntary work with a surrounding community. It may also denote concrete actions entailing
production of goods and services that are marketable
Education with productive work (EWP) and vocationalization of education
Though they seem to be related, there is a distinction. The difference emanated from
philosophical standpoint for organizing and structuring the curriculum and the sources of
financial support for running the programme.
Firstly, while the aims and targets of vocationalization are mostly economic in nature, those of
EWP were socially and morally in nature.
Secondly, Vocationalization of education aims at making the education more practical (specific
skills) while EWP emphasize on the holistic view of educative value to make the school the
bedrock of work ethics.
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Thirdly, in terms of cost to the institutions EWP aims at generating income that can clear some
of the running costs while vocationalization seems to be less concerned with the reduction of
cost.
NB. The notion of EWW and EWP was adopted and practiced in Tanzania through ESR, in Kenya
through Village Polytechnic & in Botswana through Youth Brigades.
Education for Self Reliance ESR in Tanzania. The term self reliance comprises two distinctive
words, “Self” and “reliance”. Self in ordinary usage of the term may refer to the human being as
“the agent” or the “I” of the individual human being.
“Reliance” points to a state of being that is dependent on something or somebody else.
Viewed together, self-reliance refers to a situation where the human person relies upon himself,
for his being. Self-reliance is synonymous with self-sufficiency. It means doing things for ourselves
rather than having things done for us. It does not mean that we do not need others in our lives; only
that the help we ask of others is the kind of help that makes us better able to care for ourselves
Education for self reliance was a policy established by J K Nyerere mach 1967 as a subsequent
policy in the implementation of the Arusha Declaration. In a nutshell ESR aimed at building a
socialist and self-reliant nation. It first analyzed and criticizes colonial education as
Type of education that was based on the assumptions of colonialist /capitalist society &
Encourages individualistic instinct of mankind instead of cooperative instinct. Nyerere who
formulated the policy emphasize what he said and was to say every time that; African social
value was based on group and not individual.
The education system divorces its participants from the society for which they are supposed to
be trained.
Colonial education does not involve its students in productive work.
Colonial education was basically elitist in nature
Colonial education was synonymous to formal schooling
Principles and values of ESR
ESR aimed at building a socialistic society which is based on three principles:
Equality and respect for human dignity
Sharing of the resources which are produced by our efforts
Work by everyone and exploitation by none
ESR was grounded socialist values such as;
Respect,
Cooperation and
Fair sharing of resources(common property,)
The policy was operationalised by introducing agriculture as a subject in primary school
Mobilising rural and urban workers into cooperatives & workers unions respectively.
Curricular reforms in terms of content and delivery methods were made
Also, school organisation was modified to accommodate outdoor activities
In implementing ESR Nyerere come up with six arguments;
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1. The education given to our primary schools must be complete education in itself. This is because
only few were luck to go to sec schools
2. Secondary schools must prepare people for life and services in the villages and rural areas of this
country.
3. Universities must prepare their graduate for service in rural community not for privileged isolation
4. Secondary schools should contribute to its own upkeep not just by having farms but by being a
farm run by its pupils for the benefit of all.
5. Examination should be down-graded, to recognize the values of teachers‟ assessment and the
pupil‟s contribution to his school.
6. Primary schools should be thoroughly integrated in the village life, so that the pupils remain part of
the community with responsibilities to the community.
ESR an assessment in perspective
On attitudinal change
The integration of education with work was expected, among other things to;
Instill in the learners an understanding that they were being prepared to be willing skilled workers
(carpenters, farmers, fishermen, etc).
Inculcate in students basic socialist values such as; cooperation, fair sharing of collective work and
respect for others.
Develop in them positive attitude towards manual work
The implementation of ESR in educational institutions particularly in primary and sec schools was
confined to economically useful and materially visible activities alone, Thus, reduce the policy to
education for material self-sufficient. The assessment of this has revealed that students had
developed strong dislike for physical labour in general and hate farming in particular.
On integration of EWW and EWP
It was clear that ESR in its logical dimension of integrating education with work was misinterpreted
and its philosophy sometimes incorrectly applied in primary and secondary schools.
This was associated with three factors;
1. Lack unitary system of education. For example even after nationalization of education in early 1970s
there were still different systems of schools namely the community based and the international
schools.
2. There were no adequate preparations of proper attitudinal orientation among administrators, teachers,
students and parents on ESR
3. There were hardly proper worked out practical implementation strategies and monitoring system of
evaluation.
ESR versus higher learning practice
The implementation of this educational philosophical idea of Mwalimu Nyerere requires students at
Universities to be; Think tanks with hot debates aiming at creating national discussions on issues of
national interest. Critical thinkers source of new ideas or alternative development ideas that will be
used to challenge policy makers to think critically in policy formulation.
However, what is happening today, students in universities have ceased to debate issues of national
interest such as economic, political and social crisis.
ESR expected graduates to serve the communities especially rural communities
Insisting his stance in the role of educated African to serve the society especially rural areas where the
masses of people live
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Nyerere argued that “You know better than I do, that, two thousand years ago, Jesus said: „For unto
whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required; and to whom men have committed
much, of him they shall ask the more‟. What is it then, that we require of those in our societies who
have education? We require services to the community and service in geometric progression
according to the amount they have received” (Nyerere, 1974)
“There is in fact, only one reason why underdeveloped societies like ours establish and maintain
universities. We do so as an investment in our future. We are spending large and disproportionate
amounts of money on few individuals so that they should, in the future, make a disproportionate
return to the society. We are investing in a man‟s brain in just the same way as we invest in tractor;
and just as we expect tractor to do many times as much work for us as a hand hoe…
However, things are contrary in the contemporary times. University students are no longer interested to
work in rural areas or in remote regions.
EWW & EWP Outside the formal school curriculum
Youth brigades in Botswana
The brigades are patterns non-formal training for out school youth in Botswana.
The brigades were established in 1965 and have since been taken up in Ghana and Kenya though
it is the Botswana modal which attracted most attention.
Thirteen main centers had been established, operating over 60 brigades with a total of about
2000 trainees in various fields including carpentry, agriculture, textiles, mechanics and
handcrafts.
The brigades are considered as a solution to the school leavers problem
The brigades in Botswana were initially conceived as a means of providing a more appropriate
form of post- primary education and training that was affordable.
They act as an economic means of providing some intermediate level of skills needed by
national economy
They provide artisan training through the combination of training with production.
They seek to promote rural development by providing young people with the skills needed in
those areas
Brigades were work crews initiated by communities in the villages, in response to the
unemployment of primary school leavers.
The goods and services produced in the production units are sold to the community.
In this way, Brigades focus on community development and encourage small-scale
entrepreneurs.
Village polytechnics in Kenya
They were established in 1966 at the instance of the national Christian of Kenya (NCK)
The activities of the village polytechnics were focused on primary school leavers.
It was observed that only one-quarter of primary school leavers continued into secondary
education.
Besides, the former training centers and rural industrial training centers which were providing
some opportunities for adults were thought to be expensive
They were unable to cope with the large number of school leavers approaching 70,000 in 1966
The training was geared to provide specific needs and opportunities of the particular area.
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Village Polytechnic offered varieties of training courses such as carpentry, masonry, agriculture,
plumbing, bees keeping, motor mechanics, tailoring, and domestic science. etc
The village polytechnics centres do not aim at certificates and degrees but providing skills which
are useful and necessary in each area at village level.
The activities of the village polytechnics were focused on helping unfortunate primary school
leavers.
They were low-cost training centre for rural occupations aimed at meeting the local needs of
primary school leavers
The Village polytechnics were conceived as small, non-residential centers providing not the
specialized skills offered in trade schools but generalized skills
They have important contribution to make in absorbing and promoting primary schools leavers and
promoting rural development.
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