Leadership Roles in Enhancing Learners’ Critical Thinking Skills: Evidence from Northern Tanzania Secondary Schools

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-705-7_11How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Leadership roles; Critical thinking; practical practices; pedagogical strategies; learner centered approaches

Abstract

This study assessed the role of school leaders in promoting critical thinking skills, it also examined teachers’ understanding of the concept of critical thinking skills, its relevance to learners, and the pedagogical strategies used in selected secondary schools in Northern Tanzania. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was employed, involving 100 randomly selected teachers and five heads of schools selected purposefully from five public secondary schools. Data was collected through interviews and questionnaires, with quantitative analysis conducted using SPSS and qualitative analysis done thematically. Findings revealed that school leaders indirectly play significant roles in enhancing critical thinking skills by fostering environments that encourage innovative teaching and support the competence-based approach. Teachers generally understood key attributes of critical thinking, including attentive listening, independent thinking, analytical reasoning and informed decision-making. Despite growing awareness, many teachers still use rote methods, rarely applying learner-centered strategies like inquiry-based learning, creative writing and differentiated instruction; therefore, adopting participatory approaches is recommended to strengthen students’ critical thinking. Additionally, guided by the philosophies of John Dewey, Paulo Freire, and Julius Kambarage Nyerere, the study appeals to school leaders to strive towards moving from theory to practical leadership strategies that embed critical thinking as a driver of socio-economic transformation. National-level intervention strategies, such as in-service training for teachers and policy prioritization of critical thinking, are urgently needed. These measures will empower school with resources to support innovative pedagogy, break the cycle of “business-as-usual” teaching, and ensure learners’ holistic development while advancing national goals.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Chrispina S. Lekule
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/13
TI  - Leadership Roles in Enhancing Learners’ Critical Thinking Skills: Evidence from Northern Tanzania Secondary Schools
BT  - Proceedings of the FIREtalk Conference - Research on FIRE! (research-on-fire 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 159
EP  - 175
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-705-7_11
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-705-7_11
ID  - Lekule2026
ER  -