Influence of Classroom Teacher Practices on the Teaching and Learning Effectiveness in Secondary Schools in Tanzania: A Case of Selected Schools in Kilimanjaro By

The study focused on investigating the influence of classroom teacher practices on teaching and learning effectiveness in secondary schools. The study used a number of different psychological perspectives relating to the teaching and learning process in school classrooms such as behaviourism and constructivism ideas to establish the basis for effective teacher practices and characteristics in relations to teaching and learning process. A cross section survey and naturalistic design method was used to investigate the influences of teacher practices in selected secondary schools. A simple random sampling and automatic inclusion was used, and the selected sample was made up of 200 secondary school teachers, 10 of whom were heads of schools. The data collection process included interviews, classroom observation and questionnaire instruments. The findings indicated that the teaching and learning process is greatly influenced by teacher practices and characteristics. Teachers demonstrated little knowledge of teaching techniques and skills to improve teaching effectiveness and pupil learning. The study concludes that teaching and learning processes can be improved by providing teacher support and improving the quality of teacher education through professional development practices to update teacher skills. The study recommends that efforts should be made to improve instructional processes in schools in order to achieve the intended educational goals through different strategies such as seminars, workshops, improved In-service teacher Education at school, District and National levels.


Introduction
In recent decades there has been increasing interest in improving teaching and learning effectiveness in formal education systems throughout the world. Tanzania has been influenced by these global trends, with changes to both initial and in-service teacher education focusing on improving effectiveness and efficiency of classroom practices. The curriculum of primary, secondary and teacher training in Tanzania has been changed, with the expectation of exposing teachers on both initial and in-service courses to these new methods would lead to improvements in educational outcomes for pupils, which would lead to improvements in national social and economic development. Vavrus and Bartlett (2013) provide further details of these trends within the Tanzanian education system, together with an appraisal of the degree of success and failure in terms of educational outcomes.
The teaching and learning processes in schools throughout the world have been influenced by the introduction of new methodologies focusing on active participation of pupils, experiential learning, together with the use of a greater variety of instructional media made available through the ICT revolution as referred to Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives in each of three domains -cognitive, affective and motor). In this regard there has been a revolution in the content of the school curriculum, the range of objectives included, and in modes of delivery. Terms such as independent learning skills, lifelong learning, critical thinking, and learner-centered pedagogy are used in the curricular at different levels of education.. The common theme running through these approaches has its roots in a psychological approach to learning known as constructivism. Individuals learn by mapping new experiences onto their existing knowledge, experiences and skills by assimilation. This process of integrating the new with pre-existing schema can be supported by adult mediation, a process that Bruner (1986) called "scaffolding". Essentially scaffolding involves the teacher offering support to the learner in a way which helps them develop new levels and range of skills in the learning process. A classic example of scaffolding is paired reading, where child and adult read aloud from the same text. The child hears the adult read the words, and is given the audio cue for words the child could not read alone.
The role of the teacher is to engage students in a variety of activities designed to stimulate reflection, critical thinking and independent learning skills. These ideas fit the developmental model of cognitive development pioneered by Piaget (1958) and refined by cognitivists such as Donaldson (2012), Hughes(1965), and educational theorists such as Bloom (2001)who widened educational objectives from a narrow focus on low level cognitive skills such as memory and rote-learning to a much broader range of cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills.
In terms of teacher professional development, the argument has been further developed by psychologists working in the field of adult learning, where much work has been done on looking at differences between how children learn, and how adults learn. Desforges and Vumilia (2010) provide an overview of the main trends in this field. The concepts of self-directed and such as learning are emphasized in adult learning, with Fry et.al (2009) proposing some basic principles. Kolb (1984) developed a powerful model of learning based on constructivist principles, with an emphasis on experiential learning and reflection. Kolb provides evidence that reflection on experiential learning involves the process of examining and analyzing the experience which can be supported by input, feedback and support from the teacher mediating the learning process.
A further concept proving helpful in thinking about teacher education at both initial training and in-Service level is the notion of professional knowledge and professional competence. It is not enough for teachers to have a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of theories and research in child development and learning (professional knowledge). They also need to acquire and develop the skills to transform this knowledge into actions and processes which support the learning of their pupils, helping them to acquire not just skills and knowledge in particular subject areas, but to develop the more generic skills of critical thinking and independent learning. Uwezo (2010) in an article "Are our children learning?" looks at assessment effectiveness in improving the efficiency of the teaching and learning process. The assessment aspect is a crucial element in teaching and learning because, unless it focusses on the full range of outcomes set out in the syllabus-knowledge, psychomotor skills and affective outcomes, teachers will continue to focus on just the narrow range of skills assessed in formal tests, exercises and examinations. The article concluded that learning can take place effectively when a teacher is in control over the whole process of learning. This concept of constructive alignment is developed by Biggs (2003) which emphasize that teacher has influence to the instructional process including the materials and approaches employed during learning. Teacher ability and skills in selecting appropriate assessment methods to match the required curriculum outcomes are vital. Therefore, the learning outcomes are highly determined by how the instructional practices are conducted and the learning experiences acquired by the learners during teaching and learning process.
However, until the National Examination Council of Tanzania take up the concept of constructive alignment, and use assessment methods appropriate to the stated aims and objectives in each syllabus, testing a much greater range of skills than rote memory of facts, it is unlikely that the aims and objectives will be achieved. It is easy to cite a number of examples to illustrate the point. The National Diploma in Education syllabus requires knowledge of a variety of teaching methodologies used in active participatory teaching and learning. The major assessment is by written examination requiring students to describe or give examples of various methods. There is little or no indication of assessing whether the teacher can select an appropriate method for a particular topic, and that they can organize class teaching in a way that uses a range of methodologies to allow pupils to develop the skills specified in the syllabus.
Besides, the need for continuous improvement in teacher training programmes to develop teacher's knowledge and skills of these new methodologies has at times been sadly lacking. In both initial and inservice teacher training in Tanzania, knowledge of new approaches to teaching and learning has not been accompanied by developing the skills of university and college lecturers as well as serving school teachers in the new methods, nor have they been trained in the use of ICT within an educational context. There appears to be a huge gap between the curriculum content and the requirement for new modes of learning using ICT,( the educational technology) and pedagogic methodologies used in secondary schools in Tanzania. On the other hand this study aims to focus on the influence of teacher's classroom practices on the effectiveness of teaching and learning process for effective learning.
The concept of education for all in Tanzania and many other countries in the world has called for the national curriculum of each country to ensure initial teacher training focuses on both content and methodology. "The Tanzania Education for All National Review (2015)" also makes clear that classroom processes and curriculum differentiation should be able to address the needs of all learners, paying particular attention to individual differences. With these changed priorities in mind, there is a great need to look closely at how teacher practices influence teaching effectiveness and use this information to design programmes to help teachers improve their instructional practices in Tanzania. The new national education policy emphasizes that education and training at all levels should provide opportunities for acquiring knowledge, skills and values that can help the country to improve its economy, as well as developing the skills and motivation to become successful entrepreneurs and responsible independent thinking citizens.
The UNESCO (2004) report on changing teaching practices, points out that the teacher has to develop clear objectives, not just in terms of cognition, but in terms of affective and psychomotor objectives. This can only be achieved if the teachers are equipped with the necessary instructional information on how to prepare the basic teaching and learning process which enhances skill development across these three domains, as well as developing independent learning skills. The report emphasizes the need for all the teachers to prepare lessons which take into consideration the nature of the learners and the teaching and learning materials available. This means teachers require a broad range of methodologies, and the ability to select appropriately depending on topic, available resources and age/prior learning of the pupils. This study focused on the gap between current classroom practice and the range of alternative instructional processes which could have been used to enhance effective teaching for attaining targeted learning outcomes for pupils.
Hakielimu (2017) report on the implementation of the fee-free education policy in Tanzania listed the factors which are known to affect teaching and learning process. Among the factors were determinants of effective teaching such as teacher's knowledge of the subject matter, the methodology, plans for teaching, levels of teacher's qualification and the readiness of the teaching profession to integrate these new methods into their teaching and lack of teaching and learning resources, malnutrition in pupils etc). On the implementation of fee-free education the organization reported that some classes are overcrowded, resources poor or non-existent, limiting teacher's ability to apply different learner-centered teaching methods, appropriate assessment methods, and practical experiences requiring special equipment and materials, especially in science. Bashir et al. (2018) in the article Facing Forward Schooling for Africa, points out that a teacher is very important in the education system because they can influence the nature of knowledge delivered to the learners. Teaching and learning process remains to a focus for understanding the roles of professional teachers and basis for analyzing the learning outcomes from schools. The chief responsibility of teachers is to facilitate knowledge to their learners and to determine the extent to which learning has taken place through different assessment techniques. All these activities require the teacher to demonstrate different characteristics to make the process effective. Thus, in this study, efforts were made to investigate the influence of teacher practices to the effective teaching and learning in secondary schools in Tanzania. The role of the teacher is NOT just to improve knowledge and to use assessment simply to test knowledge. Such views are the cause of so many of the problems in the Tanzania education system. The National syllabus says it wants to develop independent learning skills by using active participatory methods to develop the full range of cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills, but then uses assessment of knowledge in national examinations and the national goals in general. There is already a great deal of evidence to support a link between initial teacher training and teacher professional practice. The real question is to what extent the limited range of teacher methods employed in Tanzania classrooms are due to teacher's ignorance of a full range of methodologies. And how far are they prevented from doing so by class size, limited resources, poor motivation, and lack of appropriate reinforcement (status/financial reward).
The Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MOEVT 2010) on the Secondary Education Development Programme II (July 2010-June 2015) addresses the quality of teaching and learning process by pointing out that for the effective delivery of quality education, teacher education should remain as an area of concern. Teacher practices should reflect the learning outputs which are end-products of their efforts and the in-service programmes should be inevitable because they promote and refresh teachers' minds by enhancing their professional skills. The role of teachers remains that of facilitating the acquisition of desired knowledge, skills, values and attitudes by the learners and therefore teachers must advance their knowledge regularly through seminars and workshops and by the help of quality assurance officers and other well informed stakeholders. Pouezevara et al. (2016) on the Measures of Quality through Classroom Observation for the Sustainable Development Goals: Lessons from low-and-middle-income countries pointed out that there are many factors influencing the quality of the provision of education and the general education system. On the one hand the lessons learnt in the report including the observable features of teacher practices showed variations in education delivery done in different countries. Factors that were identified were issues of teacher qualification, motivation to work and skills which influences highly the performance of teachers in the classroom. On the other hand the achievement of sustainable development goal on education depends on the priorities and investment strategies in place,that enhances the teacher's performance in the classroom by preparing competent graduates for catering for the international labor needs. Therefore, the teaching and learning process can be altered by advancing the teacher-preparation mechanisms and programmes in order to make them achieve the national and global needs of education.

Research Problem
As shown above, constructivist approaches to formal teaching and learning within national education systems advocate the use of a range of different classroom practices that emphasize the importance of active participatory approaches to teaching and learning, with an emphasis on the development of critical thinking and independent learning skills. The different roles of teachers and learners have been the subject of much research in recent decades. In 2005 the Tanzania National Curriculum started to implement Competence-Based curriculum practices which calls upon the teacher to make more use of student centered learning in their lessons. This is done through the selection and planning of their instructional process based on different levels of interactive patterns and building on the learners' current levels of knowledge, skills and motivation. Many studies have been conducted on different aspects of the teaching and learning process, including teaching methods, teaching materials, punishment, motivation, students discipline, classroom management and general climate/ethos of the school. Very few studies have focused on how teacher classroom practices influences teaching and learning effectiveness.

Research Questions
1. What are the classroom teachers practices that influence teaching and learning in secondary schools? 2. What teacher characteristics affect classroom practices in the teaching and learning process in secondary schools? 3. To what extent do teacher's instructional practices influence classroom teaching and learning process? 4. What practical measures can be used to improve teacher classroom practices in teaching and learning in secondary schools?

Theoretical Framework
Cherry (2018) explaining the how the social learning theory works, focused on Banduras' learning theory and its influence in teaching and learning performance. Bandura (1977) in the social learning theory explains how learning is complex and related to experiences. The theory also tries to put forward the role of the teacher in influencing learner's cognitive and behavioral development. According to the theory learning can occur in many ways depending on the objectives set to be achieved. For example learning can occur through observation of sorroundings, experiences, modeling and verbal instructions, among others. This is the reason as to why the teachers require learning about the psychology and the sociology of learning in order to be able to direct learning in an appropriate way. The social learning theory emphasizes the responsibility of the teachers in creating the teaching and learning environment that stimulates the mental state of the learners not only through reinforcement and rewards from the environment but also find ways of developing intrinsic motivation in different behavioral changes.
The theory explains that learning does not necessarily cause the immediate behavior change but it provides an individual with opportunity to develop some knowledge and skills gradually with the emphasis on the social and cognitive learning patterns. In his theory, Bandura identified the most important steps in observational learning to include attention, retention, reproduction and motivation. Thus the teachers have to create conducive learning environment which is free from distracters that can interfere with the learners' attention. On the other hand teaching and learning methods that are used by the teachers have to demonstrate the ability of student to retain memory about what they learn in order to be able to recall and apply the learned knowledge and skills. The teachers' instructional practices and characteristics have to influence the learners' morale to the teaching and learning process. The theory is useful in bringing the behavior change in both formal and informal education contexts, such as in schools and at home or any other social setting where teaching and learning is possible.
With regard to this study, the theory discussed focuses on the teachers' classroom practices and shows the role of teachers in the teaching and learning process. The knowledge, skills, attitudes and values the teachers' posses can affect either positively or negatively how learning occurs and the perception of the learners towards the whole instructional process. The theory led the researchers in this study to find out how teachers' practices, instructional knowledge and skills and their characteristics can influence the teaching and learning process.

Conceptual Framework
Teacher classroom practices Professional qualification Teacher instructional practices Teacher characteristics Kolb 1984 advocates four learning styles which can help the teacher to develop and demonstrate different practices in teaching and learning. The learning cycle by Kolb takes into consideration the experiences of the learners and how she/he adjusts or improves for better learning. the learning styles identified by the learning cycle include diverging, assimilation, converging, accommodating whereby all involves teachers' understanding of learning behaviours, feelings, thinking, observations and ability to do things.

EFFECTIVE CLASSROOM TEACHER
In the teaching and learning process the learners are guided to build their learning from observation and reflections, develop ideas from the learning experiences and try out the learnt knowledge and ideas to solve day to day problems. In this study the researcher wants to establish how the teacher characteristics and practices can influence the teaching and learning process.

Methodology
The study employed a cross sectional survey design and naturalistic design for the purpose of eliciting detailed information about the topic. The target population included secondary school teachers from ten selected schools in Kilimanjaro Region and their heads of schools. The schools were selected by using simple random technique from the list of all secondary schools in the Region. The sample of the study included 200 secondary school teachers among whom 10 were heads of schools. The sample is thought to be representative because the classroom teacher practices ideally expected to be relatively similar if the training of teachers during the pre-services was well structured and aimed at meeting the same objectives. The data collection instruments included interviews schedule for heads of schools, classroom observation and questionnaire for teachers. The use of the multiple data collection instruments was geared towards helping the researcher in this study to triangulate the findings. The data analysis procedures used were descriptive analysis whereby the quantitative data were subjected to statistical analysis to obtain frequencies and percentages. The qualitative data were organized into themes and presented through texts, quotes and narratives.

Findings and Discussions Teacher Practices in Teaching and Learning Process
The study sought to find out the teacher practices employed in the teaching and learning process. Through interview the following information was obtained through classroom observation and summarized into frequencies and percentage for the matter of quick understanding. The findings in Table 1show that 83.5% of the teacher respondents indicated that one of the best teacher practices is the application of various teaching techniques in order to develop students' interests. The implication of applying different teaching techniques is that they help to break the monotony in the classroom during the lesson and improve learners' engagement in the process of teaching and learning. The result also indicates that 81% of teachers pointed out that another teacher practice in the classroom is to encourage learners to interact with each other and materials during the teaching and learning process. These findings imply that the interaction during the lesson is very important because learners require a level of interaction during the lesson for effective sharing of experiences, knowledge and skills and other lesson objectives.
The findings indicate that 78% of the teachers found that to provide equal opportunity for all the students to try during the lesson presentation was regarded as a good teacher classroom practice. The provision of equal chances to both boys and girls and to students with different cognitive abilities enhances the motivation of the learners in the lesson. The students feel respected and considered in the teaching and learning process.
As a result all learners will demonstrate an understanding of particular knowledge. Another good practice for teachers was to provide immediate feedback to the learners during teaching and learning. This was responded to by 77% of the teachers who participated in this study. This implies that feedback is a powerful teacher practice which can help to provide information on the teaching and learning progress of the learners either to the learners or their parents. The timely feedback to the learners may influence their learning behavior and enhance their response towards engagement in the teaching and learning process whereby they will develop expectations and set ways of achieving their goals. Whitehearst, Chingos and Lindquist (2014) assert that classroom observation must be made to evaluate day to day teacher practices in order to help teachers attain teaching objectives including that of assessing learning and attainment of the expected learning experiences.
The respondents in this study pointed out that the other best practice is to engage learners in different classroom activities. The information was given by 69% of the participants who found that engagement in lesson activities such as preparing teaching learning materials and playing other roles leading to making the lesson achieve its objectives. The engagement of the learners in the lesson activities helps to exploit their talents and knowledge in the concerned subject or content as they demonstrate their understanding towards different subject matter and therefore equip themselves with skills and desired knowledge.
Furthermore, 61.5% of the teacher responded that the application of reinforcement both positive and negative is a good teacher practice in the classroom. This is because reinforcement can be used to promote good behavior to be repeated such as high academic performance, participation in the lesson, asking and responding to the questions and sharing of thoughts. Positive reinforcement makes a good behavior continue to be demonstrated and again the negative reinforcement help to discourage the bad behavior or practices to continue being shown. Egeberg, McConney, and Price (2020) in their study on Teachers' views on effective classroom management are in support that teachers are required to apply different strategies of managing their learners during teaching including rewards, reinforcement and positive discipline techniques. Therefore, these practices may influence teaching and learning and bring about achievement of expected learning outcomes.
The findings show that 58.5% responded that the other teacher practice in the classroom is to promote learners' sense of sharing experiences during the teaching and learning process. This will result into development of confidence among the learners and redness to participate in their own learning throughout the lesson. The implication of this is that the role of the teacher remains that of facilitation of knowledge while the learner owns the learning process. Therefore it is an important teacher practice because it helps to address the development of significant skills such as critical thinking and creativity which enhance the learners to become organizers of knowledge and improvement of the understanding of the lesson concepts.
The findings also indicate that 55% of the teachers participated in the study pointed out that it is best teacher practice to attend students individually. This has a psychological effect on the students' learning behavior because the leaner feels that the teacher is appreciates his or her learning and the efforts that he or she demonstrates in the teaching learning process. Attending the learners individually provides an advantage to both the learners and teachers because it provides an opportunity to understand the strong and weak areas where by the learner has to work on to improve the learning behavior. The teacher can also get to understand the learning difficulties among hi/her learners and set best ways of helping them to learn and progress to achieve their expectations. The classroom observation showed that most teachers were teaching the entire class rather than addressing particular individuals for example when asking questions they received chorus answers. The finding concurs with Pouezevara et al. (2016) who emphasized that the education system can help the process of attaining sustainable development goals through quality training and education of individuals in any particular country. Therefore, an effective classroom practice should be reflected when a teacher attends individual learner's needs and not the group, this enhances effective learning as a result students attain their intended learning goals.
The results also show that 52% of the teachers identified the provision of rewards as a classroom practice. This can be a significant practice in terms of promoting best learners' practices to build positive minds about why they should demonstrate sufficient efforts or show excellent behavior in the their learning process. This implies that rewards should be provided to the learners whenever the best efforts attained by the learners in order to make the others motivated to perform the same. In addition the rewards should not be too rare to get because the learners will not develop a sense of hardworking because they will feel that a reward is not a normal practice. The reward also should be varied based on the nature of the attainment and the availability of resources in the school in order to be regular.
The creation of multiple interaction patterns was also identified by 51.5% of teachers as a classroom practice. These interaction patterns could be creation of different learning groups such as pairs, small groups, individual tasks or whole class discussions which to high extent promotes learners ability to share knowledge and experiences. The patterns of interaction will in turn make the teaching and learning process more active and lively and encourage the learners to work hard in order to contribute to the groups and give a meaningful presentation. Therefore, to establish effective class interaction patterns may also require the teacher to have a good knowledge about his/her learners' cognitive abilities and learning difficulties in order to have mixed groups. The classroom observation on the other hand showed that the main interactions during the lesson were individual task and whole class discussion and individual patterns. Few teachers had pair and large group discussion patterns which were also not seemed to be effectively handled as they were either too large to manage and sometimes formed randomly with unequal number.
Another teacher practice that was identified by 49% of teachers is asking and answering of questions during the teaching and learning process. Here the teacher has to demonstrate the questioning tactics that best help the learners to get an opportunity to ask and answer the questions effectively. This can be through the teacher re directing or re-phrasing the questions and answers given by the learners. The teacher explore the learners' prior knowledge through asking simple questions in order to build on that knowledge, as well as asking complex questions to encourage reasoning. The classroom observation indicated that teachers were not giving waiting time to the learners while in some classes questions were directed to same learners frequently which brought about monotony and made other learners dependant and discouraged.
The findings show that 48.5% of the teachers who responded to the items in the questionnaire indicate that they have to move around in the class during teaching in order to observe the learners in the learning process. This practice helps the teacher to understand students' learning progress, encourage them and also enhance attentiveness as they learn. The classroom observation ascertains that the movement of the teacher around the class during teaching and learning process helps the teacher to emphasize the learners to be hands-on the task and manage time in the group tasks. On the other hand the practice will allow the learners to demonstrate the active participation in the lesson. During classroom observation it was observed that some of the teachers were giving group tasks and they remained standing at the front of the classroom doing other things like reading their texts, looking at previous tests, assignments or just standing. They did not move around to help the learners and clear misconceptions during the discussion. However, the observation shows that most teachers were giving more criticisms than praising learners' efforts which contradicts their responses from the questionnaire. Therefore, the need to improve classroom practices is obvious for effective teaching and learning in schools.

Effect of Teacher Characteristics on the Effective Classroom Practices
The study wanted to establish the effect of teacher characteristics on effective classroom practice. The following responses were obtained through the questionnaire and are presented as shown in Table 2.  The findings in Table 2 indicate that 99% of the respondents either strongly agreed or agreed that the teachers' preparation and readiness to teach is a very important characteristic of an effective teacher that can influence the teaching and learning process. This implies that the teaching and learning process can highly be determined to be effective when teachers prepare well their lessons before they embark in the actual teaching. Beck (2005) suggests that the teachers' preparation stimulates teachers to think about his or her learners in advance and thus can lead to improved teaching learning process. Therefore the researcher recommends that teachers to prepare well their lessons for better learning outcomes and for their own professional competence.
The findings indicate that 69.5% of the participants responded to the questionnaire item that the organization and conducting of interaction patterns during teaching affects the teaching and learning process. The interaction patterns influence the development of learning knowledge and skills, which in turn affect the achievement of the expected learning outcomes. Selection of learning experiences was found to influence teaching practices in the classroom as they depend on the teachers' preparation. The teachers have to develop learning experiences by considering the subject contents and set specific objectives that are achievable based on the prior knowledge of the learners. Angelista & Minja (2018) in the study on Assessment of the Effectiveness to which lecturers apply Lerner-Centered Techniques in Teaching and Learning Process in Universities in Tanzania, concluded that the learning experiences can be built through well -planned lesson activities and can encourage interaction patterns during learning.
The finding shows that the ability to organize lesson contents is a teachers' characteristic which affects teaching and learning process in the classroom and this was strongly agreed with and agreed with, by 98.5% of participants respectively. The findings shows that teachers think it does but the classroom observation indicates that he teachers ability to organize the subject content sequentially to ensure that the learners learn from simple to complex or general to specific is still a challenge. The organization of content simplifies the order of presentation and writing of the notes for references and in turn improves the learners effective in answering the test or examination questions. During the classroom observation the researchers demonstrated difficulties in pacing the learning activities and they caused confusion to their learners. There is a need to refresh through school based seminars or other forums on different ways of improving the lesson planning, selection of learning experiences and the choice of teaching and learning techniques for better lessons.
Teachers' use of instructional language was acknowledged by 99% that it is teachers characteristic and it influences highly the instructional process differently. For example, the instructional language can affect students understanding and their ability to follow instructions and in turn their responses to teachers. The findings reveal that it is important for teachers to use simple and appropriate instructional language that can be understood by the learners during instruction in order to facilitate learning. Therefore, it is on this regard that teachers need to learn the learners' individual differences for better preparation of instructional materials to achieve the intended learning outcomes.
Assessment techniques became an interesting teacher practice, as 99% of the participants responded that it is important. The teaching and learning process cannot be complete if it is not assessed to determine the extent to which the objectives are achieved. Therefore the assessment techniques planned and used by the teachers should reflect the purpose of assessing and the nature of the learning outcomes expected. The effectiveness of the assessment techniques applied by the teacher depends a lot on the teacher's knowledge on content being assessed, quality of assessment technique and the use of the assessment results. If assessment is well organized and conducted with clear objectives it can influence the learning behavior of the learners positively. The assessment of learning can be effective when all the learning objectives are given an opportunity to be assessed such as the ability to perform tasks, feelings and attitudes, mastery of knowledge, and apply that knowledge in real life.
Teachers' ability to select teaching and learning materials was shown by 97% of the participants who agreed that it is necessary for teachers to demonstrate competence in material selection as it helps to facilitate teaching and learning process. The teacher's ability to select the teaching and learning materials effectively can influence the learner's concentration during instructional. Teachers must learn the characteristics of teaching and learning materials which attract the learners towards the lesson and use them appropriately in lessons. The failure of teachers to select best materials for teaching can make the lesson dull (boring and less interesting) for the learners. Teachers have to select the teaching and learning materials which are well designed for the level of the learners or improvise basing on the number of learners in order to benefit all the learners at the same time. Macleod (2017) asserted that the ability of the teacher to relate learning with experience can enhance the efficiency of the instructional process including the teaching learning materials used by teachers during instruction. Thus in this context the teacher can select and organize the instructional materials by focusing on the different needs of the learners.
The competence to treat learners with different abilities was regarded as a good practice if teachers and be demonstrated during the lessons. The findings in Table 2 show that 89.5% of teachers agreed that treatment of learners with learning difficulties is very important. The influence of how the learners with different learning abilities are treated in the classroom depends on the teacher instructional practices such as how she or he selects and organizes important learning experiences. Teachers have to be able to identify their learners basing on their learning abilities, and understand how to help them appropriately during the lesson. Different learning theories are highly supporting the findings by showing how different learners can be treated and teachers' responsibility to the learners with different learning styles.
The findings indicate that among the teachers' characteristics that can influence the teaching and learning process is ability to prepare scheme of work, lesson notes and lesson plan and this was shown by 99% of the respondents. The lesson preparations made by teachers are important because they provide ample time for the teacher to think about the learners and prepare. The findings showed that 51.5% and 36.5% participants respectively responded that time management is a characteristic of a teacher in bringing about effective teaching and learning in schools. Planning and implementation of teaching and learning requires proper allocation and management of time including the time for each lesson and consultation. The effective teaching and learning needs a teacher to be able to allocate each learning activity time unit in order to achieve the expected learning outcomes.

Influence of Teachers' Instructional Practices on Teaching and Learning Process
The study sought to find out teachers' opinions on how different teacher instructional practices influence the teaching and learning process. In establishing these opinions the following information was collected and summarized as shown in Table 3.  The findings in Table 3 above indicate that 98% of the teacher respondents strongly agreed and agreed that review of previous knowledge with students is an important teacher instructional practice. The revision of previous knowledge helps the learners to consolidate their knowledge and build self-confidence in the areas where they did not understood well previously. The revision of the previous subject matter can be done at the beginning of new lesson in order to set a good base for the new lesson if they are related. The revision of previous lesson can be done through different techniques such as oral question and answer session, pass the parcel, loop the loop game and other starter techniques. The findings concur with the recommendations made by Haji (2014) that teachers' attributes contribute highly to the effective teaching and learning process.
The study also recommends that the role of the teacher at the beginning of the lesson is necessary to capture the learners' mind and letting them ready to learn new subject matter. Therefore, they should be strengthened from time to time in order to bring influence to the instructional processes. During the interview one head of school said that: Some teachers think that students do not have contributions in the lessons and they feel proud to tell students all what they know about the subject matter and they do not give their learners opportunity to share their prior-knowledge at the beginning on the lesson.
The findings indicate that 99.5% strongly agreed and agreed that promoting students involvement in the lesson during facilitation is a good teachers' classroom practice which enhances learners' participation in the teaching and learning process. The learners' involvement in teaching and learning process makes the realization of lesson objectives and helps the teacher get feedback and make evaluation of the teaching and learning process.
The results of this study also show that 97% of the respondents strongly agreed and agreed that teachers' support and supervision to the learners during the instructional process is also an effective teacher classroom practice. Support during teaching and learning process is crucial in achieving the expected learning outcomes learners require. The teacher supports and supervises learners for better results in all aspects such as in their group works, project tasks, field work, feedback after group work and presentation of their lesson feedback and in conducting laboratory activities for secondary school students. The learners also need to be supported effectively when they have learning difficulties such as the less achiever and those with socialemotional needs. When the distressed learners receive support and close supervision from their teachers they settle and become confident in doing the classroom activities. The result indicates that 99% of respondents strongly agreed and agreed that the learners require social support from their teachers. Therefore the findings reveal that teachers think social support service in classroom is an effective teacher classroom practice. This is in agreement with the social learning theory by Bandura (1977) which emphasizes that the learners require a conducive learning environment for learning effectively. On the same, three heads of schools responded during the interview by saying that majority of teachers do not provided adequate support to their learners to enhance understanding. On the other hand the findings revealed that 96% of the respondents strongly agreed and agreed respectively that the teachers' emotional support used as an effective teacher practice especially in the classroom.
The study findings revealed that 98% of the teacher respondents strongly agreed and agreed that the role of the teacher in the classroom includes clarification of information to the learners. The clarification by the teacher helps to clear misconceptions and build positive learning environment for the learners because it removes doubt on a particular information or learnt concept. One head of school responded by saying that some teachers do not provide clarification to their learners because they are sometimes not well prepared and so they don't have details. The results concurs with the social learning theory proposed by Bandura and cited by Cherry (2018) who points out that teachers knowledge and perceptions towards their students influences their reactions and attention of learners during teaching and learning process.
The results in Table 3 indicate that 88% of respondents strongly agreed and agreed that teachers provide opportunity for learning and personalization of learned materials/knowledge is a classroom practice of an effective teacher. While the results also reflected that 91.5% of the respondents agreed and strongly agreed that facilitation of learners' cognitive development is a teacher classroom practice. These are important aspects of the classroom practices that have to be demonstrated by the teacher during the lesson because they bring meaning to the instructional process. The opportunity for personalization of knowledge makes the learners to understand the concepts learnt in the teaching and learning in turn develops the learners' cognitive ability to retrieve the information when necessary.
The findings show that 63% agreed and 33.5% strongly agreed that equal treatment of learners brings harmony and peace in the classroom whereby all the students are given equal opportunity to participate in the teaching and learning process. Equal treatment of learners is a good teacher classroom practice because in the class the teacher teaches learners with different cognitive abilities, religion, tribes and sex. Therefore, it is important to treat them fairly and avoid situations which may lead to discrimination or biasness. The teacher can use different teaching strategies to ensure equal treatment such as cold calling, ball tossing, games, mixed groups, sitting plans among others. The findings in Table 4 show that 94.5% of the participants responded that efforts for improving classroom teacher practices should be the application of different teaching methods and techniques which can help the learners to take role in the teaching and learning process. The use of multiple teaching and learning methods and techniques may reduce monotony in the classroom instruction and makes the lessons more interesting and enjoyable. The teaching techniques can also form the basis for learners' development of competence and motivation for learning new information. On the same four heads of schools responded during the interview by saying that some teachers are arrogant because they refuse to apply different teaching methods and techniques claiming that it is time consuming. Kafumu (2014) asserts that there is a need to assess the teaching approaches employed by teachers in order to know whether they are appropriately used for improving learners' competence. Thus regular modifications have to be made in order to help teachers to improve their teaching practices in the classroom.

Measures for Improving the Teachers' Classroom Practices for Effective Teaching and Learning Process
The findings show that 87.5% of the teacher participants responded that the classroom practices can be improved through strengthening in-service teacher training programme. The in-service teacher education is key aspect in developing teacher's competence and improve their teaching practices which in one way or another leads to the better learning outcomes. The in-service teacher education can include different areas of teacher practices such as subject content knowledge, teaching techniques, classroom control and management, students discipline, assessment of learning outcomes, teacher student relationships and other related teacher needs.
The results from the study show that 81.5% of the teacher participants responded that there is need to improve the methods of assessing learners learning outcomes. This could be the teachers improve the techniques they use during teaching and try to make them more learner centered for the assessment purpose to be achieved. Assessing learning is vital in the teaching and learning process because it provides information on the extent to which the classroom practices have helped the learners to achieve their objectives but also the specific objectives for the different lessons. Therefore the findings revealed that the teachers should be trained on how to do better assessments of learning in order to improve their teaching goals and the intended curriculum. on assessment one head of school said: All teachers are required to update their ways of setting examinations because they tend to copy past examination papers and they do not have creativity and understanding on how to make it better.
The finding indicates that 79% engage all the learners into task during the lesson can help to improve teacher classroom practices. The findings reveal that if learners are given adequate activities may take more roles in the learning process and may motivate them to learn by doing. Based on the needs of Tanzania National Curriculum which require teacher to develop student's competence the classroom practices have to be modified by changing the students learning tasks to higher level thinking skills. The findings are in line with Mkumbo (2011) who asserts that teachers' motivation and readness to teach have significant effect as a teacher classroom practice. Therefore, there is a need to improve teachers' levels of motivation by providing them all the basic and necessary support in the schools in order to achieve expected learning outcomes.
The findings show that 75% of the teacher respondents proposed that learning considers motivational procedures used to increase learning responses. The finding here reveals that teachers need to learn different strategies of motivating their learners in order to improve their responsiveness towards lessons. This can help learners to appreciate their own responsibility to the learning process and also bring improved learning outcomes. Therefore this response calls for the teachers to learn and adapt different theories of learning which emphasize the importance of motivation and reinforcement in the instructional process. The theories can include behaviorist, social and cognitive learning theories which all emphasize the role of motivation in enhancing learning. A head of school suggested that: quality assurance officers should organize workshops and seminars for teachers in order to provide training on different classroom instructional practices such as ways of motivating and reinforcing learning.
The findings on the other hand show that 73.5% of the respondents suggested that there should be a close supervision and provision of immediate feedback as basis for effective teacher-classroom practice. The provision of immediate feedback to both learners and teachers may help to improve and modify the teaching and learning process because it provides insights to the teacher's weakness and learners points of improvement. Feedback may be the results of the classroom assessments or from collegial supervision which the teacher receives after the classroom observation. All these require immediate feedback because they result into emotional reaction and if delayed may be misinterpreted by the concerned parts.
The findings also indicate 68.5% of teacher respondents suggested that there should be improvements on how teachers form the learners' interaction patterns. The observation shows that teachers had inadequate skills of forming interaction patterns during the classroom instruction. The teachers' suggestion reveals that teachers should be able to identify the learners learning differences and create appropriate interaction patterns that address their differences by considering learners sex, cognitive abilities and interests. The interaction pattern expected to make the learners more active, competitive and participate meaningful in the lessons. Lasway (2018) Teaching as a Nobel Work: Why People Join the Teaching Profession, asserted that teacher interaction with students has a significant effect to their behaviors both during the teaching and learning process and outside classroom practices. Therefore the role of health interaction may positively influence learners learning achievement and it should be conducted well during teaching and learning process to enhance the attainment of expected outcomes.
The other measure for improving teachers' classroom practices as indicated by 52% of the respondents, was selecting multiple learning experiences for each particular lesson. The learning experiences selected by teachers have to be reflected by the activities and interaction patterns that teachers create during the classroom instruction. Therefore the result revealed that teachers prepare lessons with little consideration of the learning experiences expected to be developed by the learners, which can lead to little achievement of the lesson objectives. Teachers are required to select well the learning experiences that can help the learners benefit from the classroom interactions and lesson content. These learning experiences can be developed also from the effect of multiple uses of learner-centered teaching techniques employed by teachers such as group discussions, debate, games, interactive lecture, demonstrations, practical experiments, project and case study, among others. The learners can develop learning experiences such as sense of unity and cooperation, competition, leadership skills, values, positive attitudes, team work and other important experiences worth effective instructional process.
The findings show that 51.5% of the respondents pointed out that one of the means of improving teachers' classroom practices is to involve learners in creating teaching and learning materials. The activity can improve learners' participation during the lesson and feel proud of their teaching aids that they made for facilitating the lessons. Teachers should learn the importance of involving learners in the instructional process and consider developing learners' talents and interests for better learning outcomes. The findings also reveal that 44.5% of the respondents suggested that teachers should learn to use proper language that is free from bias. The finding show that teachers' language may influence the learners' responses to the teacher in many ways including their reactions, participation, answering of questions and assessment tasks and the learning experiences developed in lessons.
Generally these findings show the teachers' opinions on what measures can be put in place in order to improve their teaching practices.

Conclusions
The findings have shown that classroom-teacher practices influence teaching and learning process in secondary schools. The findings from the sampled teachers have shown the opinion that the classroom practices and characteristics can influence the instructional process. This influence can make learning be affected either positively or negatively hence affect the final account on learner's performance. The study concludes that teacher characteristics affect classroom practices in the teaching and learning process in different ways as shown in Table 2. The results of this study concluded that teacher instructional practices influence classroom teaching and learning process very highly as they are related to the learner's behavior changes which influences their learning outcomes. There must be serious practical measures to improve teacher classroom practices in teaching and learning by providing in-service teacher training on different teaching aspects such as teaching methodologies, assessment, classroom management and others.

Recommendations
The researcher in this study recommends that there is a need for the responsible education stakeholder to take measures for improving teacher education including review the pre-service and in-service programmes. The findings also suggest that there should be close follow-up of teacher practices in schools by the heads of schools and quality assurance officers in order to improve some teacher characteristics including the instructional process. Another study can be conducted to establish the reasons as to why some teachers do not demonstrate their creativity in classroom practices and other possible skills in improving their teaching performance. This is because the study found that there is great relationship between teacher practices and effectiveness in teaching and learning process.