Conference Agenda

Competence-based curriculum(CBC) reforms have become a policy response to demands for competencies(21St Century, inclusion, digitalisation and sustainability-oriented learning). While international evidence specifies professional development criteria, system-level evaluations struggle to show how intentions are converted into classroom-enacted learning outcomes in contexts, where learning opportunities, assessment approaches and implementation conditions vary (OECD, 2024; Mitchell et al.,2024). A blind spot is the “intended-achieved” problem: learning outcomes may be specified in policy and curriculum, but the mechanisms that connect those intentions to teachers’ professional learning and competence-oriented pedagogy and assessment are rarely traced across governance layers and routines(Cedefop, 2024, 2025).

This contribution presents the research architecture and early results of STEP-STUDY Tanzania mixed-method multi-component project that examines how teacher professionalism and teacher professional development mediate the pathway from intended outcomes to classroom enactment and assessment in Tanzanian primary education. Tanzania provides a strategically informative case: CBC was introduced in general education(2005) and in teacher education(2009), creating a long enough time window for institutionalisation, drift and contested enactment, yet evidence on primary teacher professional learning and assessment practices remains limited in scale and geographic coverage (Komba & Shukia, 2023). Existing Tanzanian studies consistently point to implementation constraints (resources, time, teacher preparation) and assessment tensions, but they are typically small-scale and concentrated in secondary schooling, leaving primary education under-evidenced and system-level misalignments largely inferred rather than demonstrated (Nyoni, 2023; Mwakyobwe & Shawa, 2023; Ndimbo, 2024).

We conceptualise CBC implementation as a system-coherence problem: misalignments between intended outcomes, the teacher education/TPD infrastructure that should enable them, and the instructional and assessment routines through which outcomes become visible as learning evidence. STEP–STUDY addresses this by mapping the “intended-delivered-assessed/achieved” chain across macro/meso/micro levels and synthesising evidence through a heatmap that makes alignment and rupture points visible across strands.

Intended learning outcomes are encoded in curriculum and standards. Meso-level institutions (teacher education institutions, districts, schools) translate these intentions into programmes, materials, and CPD routines. Micro-level enactment depends on teachers’ professional repertoire and assessment literacy as a mediating competence enabling teachers to design tasks, interpret evidence, and align assessment with competence-oriented teaching (Girgla et al., 2021; Pastore, 2023; Xu & Brown, 2016).

This study aims to provide robust, evidence-based insights into the professional development of primary school teachers in Tanzania, focusing on addressing systemic gaps and improving implementation of the Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC).

Research question: How are Tanzania’s CBC learning outcomes translated from intended policy intentions into achieved classroom practices through teacher education and TPD across macro, meso and micro levels?
Sub-RQ1: Where do we observe alignment or mismatch between national intentions (policy/curriculum) and meso-level translation (teacher education curricula, CPD offers, learning materials)?
Sub-RQ2: What is the distribution of teachers’ and teacher educators’ assessment literacy and competence-oriented pedagogical practices and how does it vary by context (rural/urban, career stage)?
Sub-RQ3: Which TPD opportunities and institutional conditions are associated with higher self-reported competence-oriented practice and assessment literacy, net of teacher and school characteristics?

The study reframes CBC implementation as a system-coherence problem: misalignments between intentions, teacher education/TPD infrastructures, classroom enactment, and assessment, rather than an individualised “teacher deficit” narrative. Methodologically, it demonstrates how a macro/meso/micro heatmap can integrate heterogeneous evidence streams in a modular research programme and keep assessment literacy central to explaining achieved learning outcomes.

Study offers (1) a transferable, multi-level LOA evaluation design that moves beyond “implementation challenges” narratives by mapping specific alignment mechanisms and points of breakdown; (2) an assessment-literacy pathway specifying why competence-based reforms often remain rhetorically strong but instructionally thin; and (3) internationally comparable indicators through linkage to established survey constructs, enabling ECER audiences to use Tanzania as a theoretically informative case rather than an exceptional one.

Globally the development of learners’ 21st century skills has received considerable attention in different levels of education. This is because fostering learners’ development of 21st century skills is critical for empowering learners to innovate, adapt and act responsibly in complex global challenges such as poverty, health and economic growth and prepare them to participate meaningfully both in global and local workforces (Senjiro & Lupeja, 2023; Tandika, 2022). Responding to such a demand, in 2005 Tanzania introduced competence-based curriculum to replace knowledge-based curriculum in primary schools (Paulo & Tilya, 2014). As the result, the intention of developing 21st-century skills is evidently documented in 2014 Education and Training Policy (2023 edition), its implementation guidelines, the National Curriculum Framework for Basic and Teacher Education and basic education system (pre-primary, primary and lower secondary education) (Komba & Shukia, 2023; MoEST, 2019; URT, 2023b, 2023a). These changes have imposed new demands on teachers and necessitated the alignment of their classroom instructional practices to support learners in mastering 21st century skills.

Existing studies conducted in Tanzania revealed that most of the teachers possess limited instructional competences to facilitate lessons and design assessments that foster mastery of the 21st century skills mainly due to limited professional development training (Ndimbo, 2024; Nyoni, 2023; Rubeba & Ali, 2024; Senjiro & Lupeja, 2023; Tandika, 2022). However, most of these studies have focused on secondary education, while studies on primary school teachers remain few, limited in scale and geographical coverage (Ndimbo, 2024). Additionally, Komba and Shukia (2023) noted that there is limited evidence in Tanzania of whether primary school teachers are effectively supporting learners’ mastery of 21st century skills in their teaching. Thus, this study focuses on assessing primary school teacher’s classroom instructional practices for fostering 21st century skills in Tanzania.

The study is guided by the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills (ATC21S) framework. ATC21S is categorized into four broad skills; ways of thinking, ways of working, tools for working and living in the world (Griffin et al., 2012). Ways of thinking include critical thinking, creativity and problem solving. All these involve higher-order cognitive processes that enable learners to analyze information, generate original ideas, and develop effective solutions to complex and unfamiliar problems (Chai et al., 2015; Griffin et al., 2012). Ways of working include collaboration and communication. This category involves how individuals interact with others to share ideas, coordinate efforts, and achieve common goals (Griffin et al., 2012). Ways of thinking and working are collectively referred to as golden standard abilities essential for meeting the demands for success in work and life (Griffin et al., 2012). This is because together they equip learners with abilities to analyze complex situations, generate innovative solutions, work effectively with others, and clearly express ideas. These skills are essential for success in both modern workplaces and everyday life. Thus, critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, collaboration and communication are taken into account in this study.

Research objectives

This study aimed:

1. To examine the variation in the overall teachers’ classroom instructional practices for fostering critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, collaboration and communication skills.

2. To compare teachers’ classroom instructional practices for fostering critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, collaboration, and communication skills based on working experience, level of education attained, teaching subject, and gender.

Research questions

This study respond to the following research questions:

1. What variations exist in teachers’ overall classroom instructional practices for fostering critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, collaboration, and communication skills?

2. Are there significant differences in teachers’ classroom instructional practices for fostering critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, collaboration, and communication skills based on working experience, level of education attained, teaching subject, and gender?

Out-of-field (OOF) teaching, where teachers are assigned to teach subjects for which they did not receive formal tertiary training, has become a persistent feature of many education systems around the world and has various implications for teachers and students alike. International research consistently links OOF teaching to challenges in content knowledge (CK) (Du Plessis, 2020) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of teachers (Hobbs, 2012a). This, in turn, affects the instructional practices of teachers (Singh et al., 2021), the learning approaches used in the classroom (Carpendale & Hume, 2020), their beliefs (Campbell et al., 2023), as well as the influences of OOF teaching on the teachers’ self-efficacy (Goos & Guerin, 2022) or on their professional identities (Hobbs, 2012b). Far less is known about a professional practice that precedes the instruction itself: lesson planning.

Lesson planning is seen as a central skill of and tool for teachers (Carlson et al., 2019), while being characterized as learnable (Schröder et al., 2020) and subject-specific (Großmann et al., 2025). Consequently, lesson planning is a crucial part of preservice teacher training. However, when such subject-specific learning opportunities are absent from teachers’ initial training, as is the case for most OOF teachers, lesson planning emerges as an impactful aspect for research. This submission addresses this gap by focusing on how OOF physics teachers approach lesson planning for physics classes to generate insights into how these teachers could be supported through targeted professional development.

Guided by the Model of Educational Reconstruction (MER) (Duit et al., 2012), this submission conceptualizes physics lesson planning as an iterative interplay of the three components of the MER: the clarification and analysis of science content, the research on teaching and learning with an emphasis on learners’ perspectives, including students’ conceptions, as well as the design and evaluation of teaching and learning environments. The MER is rooted in a constructivist view of learning, with a particular emphasis on students’ perspectives and conceptions. Students’ perspectives encompass, for example, their interests, attitudes or skills as well as their conceptions. Students’ conceptions are characterized as everyday interpretations of phenomena that appear meaningful to learners but do not always align with scientific concepts (Driver, 1989). These conceptions are central to instructional quality as the importance of incorporating these conceptions in lesson planning are essential for achieving conceptual change of the students (Aufschnaiter & Rogge, 2021).

Within this framework this submission employs semi-structured interviews in order to investigate the following research questions:

RQ1: How do out-of-field teachers describe their approach to and experiences with lesson planning in physics?

RQ2: What types of support can be derived to assist out-of-field teachers as part of their professional development, based on how they describe and perceive lesson planning in physics?

By using the MER as an analytical lens, the study contributes to an empirically grounded diagnosis of where lesson planning is constrained for OOF physics teachers and how professional development (PD) and support opportunities might better align with the realities of OOF teachers. Although our study focuses on Austrian OOF physics teachers, the findings offer valuable insights into lesson planning practices and implications for PD internationally, as OOF teaching is an internationally discussed issue.