The TEAMS Project in Tanzania : From Intervention to Capacity Building

The TEAMS project in Tanzania was established at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) in the mid nineties of the last century as a response to a study which showed the poor state of science and mathematics in the country. The project, a cooperation between science and mathematics educators at UDSM and Dutch counterparts and funded by the Dutch government, was aimed at assisting with the production of more and better-qualified science and mathematics teachers. Specifically the project sought to help in setting up more productive and effective teacher education programs, to build capacity at UDSM via formal Masters and PhD studies of staff, to develop postgraduate programs for leadership development for stakeholders in the education system and to break the isolation of science teacher educators through international exposure. The paper outlines the activities undertaken by the project (which ended in 2004) and the extent to which project objectives have been achieved. The paper closes with a section on experiences and lessons learned from the operations of the project. It focuses on project execution, relations in the project, new teacher education programmes, research, and capacity building and sustainability. The capacity building activities in the TEAMS project are seen as one of the most successful components of the project. The end of the project coincided with the launch by the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Secondary Education Development Plan (SEDP) which requires development of new teacher education programmes, additional leadership in (among others) the areas of curriculum development, assessment, subject advisory and inspection services. It is concluded that the project has made a significant contribution in these areas.