Bibliography: leaves 221-223. / This dissertation is concerned with a systematic description of the recontextualization of the practices of a textbook, Maths for all Grade 7 Learner's Activity Book, when it is incorporated into grade 7 mathematics teachers' classroom practices. In particular, the research described here focuses on the impact of the textbook on four grade 7 mathematics teachers' classroom practices. My study forms a sub-project of a larger research project which explores the impact of the textbook, Maths for all Grade 7 Learner's Activity Book, in 14 grade 7 mathematics classrooms. The research design of my study comprised two aspects: an analysis of a chapter from the textbook, Maths for all Grade 7 Learner's Activity Book, and an analysis of its use in classrooms. Data collected included a textbook chapter on measurement and the accompanying chapter in the teacher's guide, questionnaires (learner, teacher and school), teacher interviews, video recordings of observed lessons and learner notebooks. Drawing largely on Paul Dowling's Social Activity Theory and Paula Ensor's extension of this work in her study on teacher education, a theoretical model was developed for the analysis of data. The theoretical model was supplemented with theoretical concepts from Basil Bernstein's sociological theory of pedagogic discourse. While the model was developed in relation to the content and use of a specific textbook, the model can potentially be used for other mathematics textbooks or textbooks from other disciplines. Analysis shows that the textbook, which embodies an inductive, exploratory pedagogy, cannot on its own achieve learner's apprenticeship into mathematics, or teacher's apprenticeship into its privileged mode of teaching mathematics. The analysis of the teachers' use of textbook shows that in most cases, the privileged pedagogy of the textbook differed considerably from the preferred pedagogy of the teachers. Most teachers preferred a deductive pedagogy and used the textbook in ways which fragmented the mathematical knowledge presented to learners, reduced the mathematical complexity of the textbook tasks and consequently transformed the pedagogic intentions of the textbook. The research therefore concludes that the transformative role of the textbook needs to be accompanied by teacher development programmes.

The dissertation is concerned with the production of a systematic account of the recontextualising of pedagogic discourse across two contexts: mathematics INSET provision and school mathematics teaching. Drawing on the work of sociologists Basil Bernstein and Paul Dowling, an attempt is made to construct a theoretical model which is applied to produce a reading of the interactions between an INSET provider and a teacher, and the teacher and school students. The dissertation opens with a description and discussion of the conceptualising of the research project, the production of data, and the use of the literature survey and theoretical resources in the production of a methodology. The second chapter presents a review of the literature on INSET in which three chief components of conceptions of good INSET practice are highlighted: teachers should define their own needs; INSET should be concerned with the professional development of teachers, where professionalism implies an exclusion or marginalising of academic concerns; and INSET should be school-focused. The chapter moves on to consider NGO-provided INSET and concludes with a discussion of INSET in terms of Bernstein's categories horizontal and vertical discourses. In the third chapter, elements of Bernstein's code theory and Dowling's language of description are appropriated to construct a model which contextualises the study, produces an account of the transmission and acquisition of pedagogic discourse which attends to the interactions between transmitters and acquirers, and generates data for analysis. The chapter concludes with a summary of the model. Chapter 4 is devoted to an analysis of written materials from an INSET course which the teacher attended as well as the interactions between the INSET provider and teacher. An analysis of the use of wall displays and the arrangement of the classroom is produced in chapter 5, followed by an analysis of the interactions between the teacher and students. The analysis focuses on the way in which the utterances of the transmitter and acquirer are redescribed to produce pedagogic texts. The dissertation is concluded in chapter 6 which opens with a discussion of the resources and strategies implicated in the recontextualising of pedagogic discourse after which a summary of the analysis is produced. The last section of the chapter discusses the limitations of the research and the model.

Bibliography: leaves 113-119. / This research dissertation emerges as a component of a broader research study, which sought to determine the impact of a mathematics textbook, Maths for all (Mfa) on teaching and learning, in general, and on learners' performance, in particular. The impact evaluation study focused on Grade 7 learners, from a sample of formerly DET primary classrooms in townships near Cape Town. It focused particularly on the teaching of decimals, percentages and measurment which 14 teachers in these schools agreed to teach in the second term of 2000. The 538 learners, from 10 experimental classrooms (with access to Mfa) and 4 control classrooms (with no access to Mfa), were given a pre-test at the beginning of the second term, and the same test as a post-test towards the end of the same term of the year 2000. The present study aims to analyse possible patterns of error in learners' responses to the test and investigate whether these patterns suggest underlying misconceptions held by the learners on decimals, percentages and measurement. As a secondary aspect, the study also set out to evaluate the test instrument as a measure of achievement and of potential misconceptions.

Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education in the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2012. / The present study investigates the level of mathematics content knowledge acquired by pre-service teachers at the point of exit in their training programmes. The study was conducted on mathematics pre-service teachers. The purpose of study is to determine the level of mathematics attained by the pre-service. It is surmised the level of mathematics knowledge can influence learners’ performance in mathematics. The teachers’ lack of adequate mathematics content knowledge to teach mathematics proficiently is allegedly the source of poor attainments in mathematics education. On the basis of this perception, the extent to which pre-service teachers are ready to teach must be established. It was therefore compelling to conduct the present study to find answers to the following questions: What is the level of mathematics content knowledge the pre-service teachers possess at the point of exit of their training programmes?. How does the level of mathematics content knowledge possessed by pre-service teachers influence their teaching practices? This assertion forms the basis of the aims of study. To achieve the aims of the study, a standardised Mathematics Proficiency Test was administered to a sample of final year prospective teachers from two universities in South Africa. Practice teaching assessment and the comparison of high school and teachers education syllabi was also done to achieve the aims of the study. The results revealed that very few pre-service teachers command adequate knowledge of mathematics as they exit their training programmes. The pre-service teachers’ knowledge in three sections of mathematics namely, algebra, trigonometry and geometry is the same. The study also revealed that there is no relationship between the achievements in mathematics content and achievements in teaching practice. Furthermore the study revealed that the teacher training programmes cover most of the themes that are covered by high school syllabus. The discussion of findings coupled with their implications is highlighted. The avenues for future research are indicated. / University of Zululand

Bibliography: leaves 146-152. / It is now generally acknowledged that effective and sustainable in-service education and training (INSET) programmes require, first, adequate information to be available on teachers' demographics and, second, for teachers' views on professional development to be taken into consideration. Neither kind of information is currently available for Mathematics teachers in the Limpopo Province of South Africa in a reliable manner. Consequently, this study has as its objectives 1) to determine the demographic profile of secondary Mathematics teachers in the Limpopo Province, 2) to establish the perceived INSET needs of these teachers, and 3) to examine possible associations between demographic profiles and perceived INSET needs of secondary Mathematics teachers in the Limpopo Province.

Abstract not available

Mathematics is recognized as the ticket to science and engineering. Modern schooling emphasizes this by requiring some kind of literacy in mathematics for all academic disciplines. And yet, many students do not appear to be enticed by what mathematics offers to them. They find mathematics incomprehensible and meaningless to their lives. This conflict between the values of mathematics and the students' alienation from it has been the concern of mathematics educators in the U.S. and elsewhere. Much of the current emphasis has focused on accessible classroom pedagogies as well as improving early mathematical preparation, with attention to U.S.-born, underserved minorities and women in the U.S. classroom. This study broadens the scope in two ways. First, it explores the mathematics classroom experiences of 8 African-born subjects in African classrooms and U.S. classrooms. Second, it explores the domain knowledge of modern mathematics as it is presented both in African classrooms and the U.S. classroom. The study finds that African students experience modern mathematics in African classrooms very similarly to the mathematics they encounter in the U.S. It finds that African mathematics education in elite schools is conducted in the post-colonial language using post-colonial text. It finds that despite the dramatically more accessible teaching that African students experience in the U.S. classrooms, their distaste and alienation towards mathematics remains unchanged. The data are interesting in themselves. Even more important to me is the insight to offer the domain knowledge as distinct, but related to classroom pedagogy. I draw upon literature of ethnomathematics and of everyday mathematics to offer a critique of the unexamined domain knowledge of mathematics that continues in U.S. classrooms as well as westernized classrooms in other parts of the world. The study concludes with a pedagogical proposal that bridges the schooling of mathematics with multi-cultural knowledge, critical knowledge, and community knowledge.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.