Michael, Tulia Deo Bamira2023-01-042023-01-042022Michael, T. D. (2022). Pedagogical practices for nurturing the minds of the 21st century among non-formal secondary school learners in Tanzania (Doctoral thesis). Dodoma, The University of Dodomahttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12661/3585Doctoral thesisThis study examined the pedagogical practices for nurturing the minds of the 21st century among non-formal secondary school learners in Tanzania. The study was guided by the Socio-cultural Theory. The study employed a qualitative approach and it adopted the phenomenology design. The study was carried out in Kinondoni Municipal Council in Dar-es-Salaam Region in four non-formal secondary education centers. A total number of 60 participants were involved in the study where 44 were learners, 8 teachers, 4 heads of the non-formal secondary education centers, one (1) Municipal Adult Education Officer, one (1) Municipal Secondary Education Officer, one (1) Municipal Executive Director and one (1) coordinator for non-formal secondary education from the Institute of Adult Education (IAE). Interviews, observations, focus group discussions and documentary reviews were the main methods for data collection. The findings indicate that pedagogical practices utilized by teachers were inadequate for nurturing the minds of the 21st century among non formal secondary school learners. The findings also indicate that the instructional strategies employed by teachers such as lectures, questions and answers, group discussions, oral presentations and problem-solving had a low contribution to nurture the minds of the 21st century among learners. It was again found that the teaching and learning materials employed by teachers had limited contribution to nurturing the minds required for the 21st century among learners such as summarized notes, pamphlets, past paper reviews, and instructional materials. It was further found that the formative and summative assessment techniques used by teachers to assess the learners were limited and could not help them to nurture the minds needed for the 21st century. These techniques were weekly, monthly and mid-term tests, terminal, annual, pre-and mock examinations and most of them were of the cognitive domain orientation. In addition, it was found that teachers tended to concentrate their attention on academic performance without ensuring that learners acquire the minds that can help them fit in the labor market economy place. The study concludes that for teachers to nurture the minds that are required by the learners of the 21st century in non-formal secondary education, they need pedagogical practices that encourage collaboration, interaction, and full participation of the learners in learning. For this to be a reality, teachers in non-formal secondary schools need training on interactive pedagogies that meet the requirements of the 21st century generation.enPedagogical practicesNon-formal schoolNurturingLearnersSecondary educationTeachers trainingMinds nurturingThesis