This study sought to determine, by means of a questionnaire, the answers to the following research questions. 1. To what extent are secondary mathematics teachers in British Columbia currently participating in local curriculum development? 2. What are the attitudes of secondary mathematics teachers toward curriculum development at the local level? 3. What are the characteristics of teachers with respect to involvement in local curriculum development and attitudes toward local curriculum development? A special three-part questionnaire was constructed to answer these questions. The first part asked fifteen factual Yes/No type guestions about the current participation of mathematics teachers in local curriculum development activities. The second part of the questionnaire determined teacher attitudes toward local curriculum development through a 20-item Likert scale. The third part gathered descriptive data from the respondents. After a pilot study, the final questionnaire was sent to 200 secondary mathematics teachers randomly selected from the membership list of the British Columbia Association of Mathematics Teachers. The return rate for the questionnaire was 57%, and the Hoyt reliability estimate of the Likert scale was .86. Face validity of the Likert scale was determined by a panel of judges. Analysis on the first part of the questionnaire revealed that in general, there was a lack of support for curriculum development at the district, school and individual levels. In answer to question two, the attitudes of secondary mathematics teachers generally were favourable to local curriculum development activities as measured by the Likert scale. An examination of specific items revealed that teachers generally supported the provincial core program but were undecided as to whether districts should develop their own core. Furthermore, most teachers expressed a desire to be more involved in curriculum planning and indicated their willingness to serve on district and school curriculum committees. In answer to question three, the only characteristic of teachers that seemed to have some relationship to their attitudes was teaching level. Junior secondary teachers had significantly higher scores on the attitude scale than senior secondary teachers. The study found no significant differences between male and female mathematics teachers, between those with graduate education and those without, between teachers in small schools and large schools, and between teachers who were or were not department heads. Also, age, years of teaching experience and educational diversity did not have any significant relationship to attitudes. Recommendations were that more support be given for local curriculum development activities at the district, school and individual levels, that some form of provincial learning assessment program be used, and that teachers be allowed to choose their textbooks from an approved list. Final recommendations were that support of secondary mathematics teachers in local curriculum development activities should be directed to mathematics teachers as school groups at the junior secondary school level and that the attitudes of mathematics teachers toward local curriculum development should be further studied since only a small portion of the variance in their attitudes was explained. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

M.Ed. / High school mathematics learners often take mathematics education for granted. They study mathematics simply because it is included in the school curriculum, and thus required for them to pass so that they can obtain a school leaving qualification. They never really succeed in seeing and understanding the relevance of mathematics to their present and future lives. As a result, they fail to relate and apply classroom mathematics to the external environment. They fail to make mathematical connections that would enable them to be confident users of mathematics as an effective tool for solving problems, a means of communication and a way of supporting reasoning. This suggests that there may be some serious constraints associated with the teachers' instructional approaches, which hinder the learners' meaningful learning and understanding of the relevance of mathematics. Thus, there arises the need to examine the relationship between the teachers' instructional approaches and the learners' understanding of the relevance of mathematics. Such an examination may help to expose the strengths and limitations of the instructional approaches, so that the necessary adjustments can be made in the teaching practice to improve the learning of mathematics.

This paper is a study of the general mathematics program in the secondary school. The purpose of this study is to help the inexperienced teacher plan his program of work for the year. The teacher will not find a definite program that he may follow step-by-step, but suggestions that will be of help in developing an effective program. / "August, 1950." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: H. A. Curtis, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 22).

This study addressed the inherent quandary of misconceptions that impacts on performance as reported in the National Diagnostic Report of the learner performance in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) 2011 examinations. In order to gain insights into learner performance, Sfard’s (2008) commognitive framework was used as a theoretical lens to examine learners’ mathematical thinking about functions. This study first described components of function concept from a constructivist perspective and further redescribed these in discursive terms i.e. from a focus on learners’ use of terminology to words/word use; from representations to visual mediators; from competencies to routines; and from concept definition to endorsed narratives. Data was collected through written tests and interviews of Grade 11 learners in one of the multilingual schools in one Province in South Africa. The research approach was first quantitative .Twenty six learners were given tasks involving functions that would highlight their errors. The study then moved to an interpretive qualitative approach based on Sfard’s commognitive theory. The qualitative study had five participants. A multiple methods strategy of data collection was employed during this stage: learners’ interview transcripts, written work and researcher’s field notes. The quantitative study confirms that learners were making errors on functions. The analysis of the qualitative study revealed that learners’ discourse included a combination of colloquial and mathematical discourse as expected. Interestingly, while all the features of mathematical discourse were present in learners’ mathematical discourse, their routines and words were linked to errors.

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the PhD degree of the University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, 2016. / This study compares school based assessments to standardised national assessments in South Africa. The purpose of this research was to understand widespread evidence of a discrepancy in South Africa between the judgements of mathematical achievement made within internal school-based assessments (SBA) and external standardised national assessments (SNA). The study considers the possibility of a mismatch between the design feature rules of SBA and SNA and explores the nature of this discrepancy at a Grade 6 level in three different school settings (suburban, township, and inner-city). The context of the study was characterised by the aims espoused for assessment in South African national policy interpreted in terms of an activity theory-based nested conceptualization of motives, goals and operational activities. Specific interest was directed at how operations or design features at national policy document level come to function as “rules” for SNA and SBA activity systems. The study was then directed towards explanations and findings on discrepancies between advocated rules and espoused design feature rules interpreted from an analysis of artefacts in SNA and SBA. The key artefacts analysed in the study were the Annual National Assessment (ANA) designed by the Department of Basic Education and the internal SBA assessments designed by Grade 6 teachers. The study shows that motives and goals that advocate design rules are inferred from a curriculum implementation discourse, with less emphasis on psychological needs and curriculum standards. The enacted activities are considerably varied across school settings. This is evidenced by lower levels of coverage and range and scope of questions in the township school in comparison to the suburban and inner city schools, even when the local district is a protagonist. Across activity systems, comparative analysis of SNA and SBA artefacts showed that there were critical disjunctures leading to deviations from suggested design features, with the state driven ANA and district mediation tools unable to close the gap. The study concludes with notable theoretical and policy implications for thinking about Grade 6 SNA and SBA activity systems in South Africa.

Thesis (M.A.Ed.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong. / Bibliogarphy: leaves 51-53.