School of Teacher Education 

The problem of quality of education in general and science and mathematics education in particular has been a problem in Ethiopian education for the past two decades. The deterioration in quality can be seen in students’ performance in the National Learning Assessments (NLA) for grades 4, 8 and 10 where performance was below the minimum performance benchmark (50% out of 100%) set by the Ministry of Education. In the recent NLA report (MOE, 2020), the percentage of Grade 4 students who scored above 50% in Environmental Science was 28.5%. During the same period, the percentage of eighth-graders who scored above 50% in biology, chemistry, and physics was only 23.98%, 16.56%, and 16.91%, respectively.

The key to changing the quality of education lies in working on the capacity of teachers which is seen as determinantal in most cases. According to Rowe (2003), what matters most in influencing student learning outcomes in schools is the quality of teachers and teaching. Teachers’ experience, their teacher education background, their beliefs and motivations, their content knowledge, their pedagogical content knowledge, and their general pedagogical knowledge are the fundamental attributes of teacher quality that appear frequently in the literature (Kamayubonye & Mutarutinya, 2023; Blömeke, Olsen & Suhl, 2016) are considered essential to play important roles in the quality of education in general and students learning outcomes in particular. Teacher training and professional development are essential mechanisms for enhancing such attributes.

As teachers grow professionally and improve their teaching skills, they are more likely “to determine, influence, and implement change in the education sphere” (Brikmane & Samuseviýa, 2014). To this end, it is essential to establish a system that can sustainably improve the quality of education in general and of science and mathematics teaching in particular. Since the College of Education at BDU is a center of excellence for teacher education, it has to establish a system that enables it to successfully carry out its responsibility. To date, there is no training and research center in Ethiopia that is exclusively dedicated to focus teaching and learning of mathematics and science. Hence, the establishing the Center for the Study of Science and Mathematics Teaching and Learning (CSSMTL) will be helpful in taking targeted measures to improve the quality of mathematics and science education. The center will provide professional development trainings for school science and mathematics teachers and teacher educators, engage in research, and disseminate results and policy briefs for decision makers.

BDU has already established ten research centers in 2013 to realize its vision of becoming one of the premier research universities in Africa by 2025. The establishment of CSSMTL is therefore in line with the university’s efforts to strengthen its research endeavors. As the center will focus particularly on the areas of teaching and learning in science and mathematics, it will open the door to the introduction of a specialized research program. Furthermore, the recent differentiation of universities in Ethiopia has branded BDU as a research university due to its long-standing experience and relative strength in research activities. Such a center will add value for BDU when it became part of the university’s structure.