Understanding the Best Practices in Enhancing Social Sciences Curricula for Students’ Life Skills Acquisition in Mbeya Region, Tanzania

Abstract

This study investigated the best practices to enhance social science curricula for students’ life skill acquisition in community secondary  schools. This study aimed to understand the best practices for enhancing curricula for students’ life skills acquisition in the Mbeya region.  This study’s curricula include geography, history, and civics. This study employed an interpretivist research philosophy with a qualitative approach and a case study research design. The study comprised 30 participants, including 20 teachers and 10 parents. The  data were gathered through interviews. The study used NVivo software to analyse the data. This was done by transcribing the data  acquired by the equipment, sorting and synthesizing them into categories and developing themes. The results indicate that stakeholders’ involvement in curricula review is the best practice for enhancing students’ life skills acquisition. The study also demonstrates theoretical  curricula enhancement without students’ life skills acquisition. It also encourages using participatory classroom approaches as the best  practice for enhancing students’ life skills acquisition. Furthermore, the study findings necessitate using the Swahili language as a  medium of instruction in secondary schools. The study concluded that the best practice to enhance students’ acquisition of life skills is to  apply a participatory approach in the classroom.