This research investigates the relationship between the attitude of senior secondary mathematics educators towards school and the achievement of their learners. A literature study examined research into the relationships between an educator's attitude towards his or her school management team, colleagues, learners, parents, the subject of mathematics and the factors influencing mathematics achievement. An empirical investigation used a quantitative research design to collect data from selected senior secondary schools in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. A questionnaire was used to gather data and a statistical data analysis was conducted to calculate frequencies and test hypotheses. Findings indicated the existence of a relationship between educators' attitudes towards school and the achievement of their learners. It was therefore recommended that school managers should be very sensitive to the climate prevailing in their schools in order to encourage mathematics educators and thus, indirectly, learners in this vital subject. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Didactics)

This study attempted to design and implement an intervention programme to improve the self-concepts and attitudes of prospective primary school teachers. The possible effects of the programme were researched by means of a combined quantitative and qualitative approach. A questionnaire to determine the effectiveness of the programme was also designed. Important findings of this study are that: (a) the Cronbach Alpha Coefficient indicated a 0,9 reliability of the designed questionnaire; (b) the average self-concepts of prospective teachers improved after the intervention programme was implemented, though not significantly and (c) the self-concepts of prospective teachers not majoring in Mathematics also improved after the intervention, though not significantly. A focus group interview was conducted to improve the intervention programme. On the basis of the responses of the participants in the focus group interview as well as of the quantitative study and of the literature reviewed, an improved version of the intervention programme was designed. According to the research, the programme should include: cooperative learning; everyday life contexts; manipulatives; hands-on activities, encouraging the asking of questions; a positive relationship between lecturer and student; writing assignments before doing a new topic; content relevance; a positive communication of assessment; games; various approaches to solving problems; understandable language; gender sensitivity and positive role modeling. The intervention programme implemented in this study was tested over a period of three months; hence the recommendation in this research for the replication thereof over a longer period. The study further recommends that since the study was conducted in one college of education only, there is a need for it to be conducted in a number of colleges, in order to elicit a broader and more representative picture of the impact of the intervention programme. The findings of this study advocate the need to combine both quantitative and qualitative research in studies: the results of the quantitative research did not conclusively indicate a positive impact of the intervention programme. However, the qualitative research saw respondents expressing improved confidence and attitudes. / Psychology of Education / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

The focus of this study was to explore and expand capabilities, sustainability and gender justice in Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects (SMTs) in teacher education curriculum practices as a process of Education for Sustainable Development in two case studies in Zimbabwe and South Africa. The study begins by discussing gender and science education discourse, locating it within Education for Sustainable Development discourse. Through this nexus, the study was able to explore gender and sustainability responsiveness of the curriculum practices of teacher educators in Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects; scrutinise underlying mechanisms that affect (promote or constrain) gender and sustainability responsive curriculum practices; and understand if and how teacher education curriculum practices consider the functionings and capabilities of females in relation to increased socio-ecological risk in a Southern African context. Influenced by a curriculum transformation commitment, an expansive learning phase was conducted to promote gender and sustainability responsive pedagogies in teacher education curriculum practices. As shown in the study, the expansive learning processes resulted in (re)conceptualising the curriculum practices (object), analysis of contradictions and developing new ways of doing work. Drawing from the sensitising concepts of dialectics, reflexivity and agency, the study worked with the three theoretical approaches of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), feminist theory and capabilities theory. The capability and feminist lenses were used in the exploration of gender and sustainability responsiveness in science teacher education curriculum practices. CHAT, through its associated methodology of Developmental Work Research, offered the opportunity for researcher and participants in this study to come together to question and analyse curriculum practices and model new ways of doing work. Case study research was used in two case studies of teacher education curriculum practices in Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects, one in Zimbabwe and one in South Africa. Each case study is constituted with a networked activity system. The study used in-depth and focus group interviews and document analysis to explore gender and sustainability responsiveness in curriculum practices and to generate mirror data. Inductive and abductive modes of inference, and Critical Discourse Analysis were used to analyse data. This data was then used in Change Laboratory Workshops, where double stimulation and focus group discussions contributed to the expansive learning process. Findings from the exploration phase of the study revealed that most teacher educators in the two case studies had some basic levels of gender sensitivity, meaning that they had ability to perceive existing gender inequalities as it applies only to gender disaggregated data especially when it comes to enrolment and retention. However, there was no institutionalised pedagogic device in place in both case studies aimed at equipping future teachers with knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to promote aspects of capabilities (well-being achievement, wellbeing freedom, agency achievement and agency freedom) for girls in Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects. Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects teacher educators' curriculum practices were gender neutral, but in a gendered environment. This was a pedagogical tension that was visible in both case studies. On the other hand, socio-ecological issues, in cases where they were incorporated into the curriculum, were incorporated in a gender blind or gender neutral manner. Social ecological concerns such as climate change were treated as if they were not gendered both in their impact and in their mitigation and adaptation. It emerged that causal mechanisms shaping this situation were of a socio-political nature: there exist cultural differences between students and teacher educators; patriarchal ideology and hegemony; as well as other interfering binaries such as race and class. Other curriculum related constraints, though embedded in the socio-cultural-political nexus, include: rigid and content heavy curriculum, coupled with students who come into the system with inadequate content knowledge; and philosophy informing pedagogy namely scientism, with associated instrumentalist and functionalist tenets. All these led to contradictions between pedagogical practices with those expected by the Education for Sustainable Development framework. The study contributes in-depth insight into science teacher education curriculum development. By locating the study at the nexus of gender and Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects within the Education for Sustainable Development discourse, using the ontological lenses of feminist and capabilities, it was possible to interrogate aspects of quality and relevance of the science teacher education curriculum. The study also provides insight into participatory research and learning processes especially within the context of policy and curriculum development. It provides empirical evidence of mobilising reflexivity amongst both policy makers and policy implementers towards building human agency in policy translation for a curriculum transformation that is critical for responding to contemporary socio-ecological risks. / Microsoft� Word 2010 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo analisar as possibilidades de estudo sobre a autonomia docente em um grupo de professores de Ciências e Matemática, a partir de suas experiências vivenciadas em um curso de robótica educacional, sob a perspectiva de Contreras e Habermas. Tal abordagem procura, sem rebaixar a importância dos conteúdos, retirar sua centralidade do processo de ensino/aprendizagem, trazendo como protagonista, para o palco desse processo, o desenvolvimento das habilidades comunicativas do professor e de seu aprendiz. O trabalho se fundamenta no estudo da autonomia docente feita pelo professor espanhol José Contreras, e para os aspectos comunicativos do curso e de sua posterior análise, no modelo de teoria da argumentação apresentado pelo filósofo alemão Jürgen Habermas em sua obra Teoria do Agir Comunicativo (TAC). Na metodologia são descritas, em detalhes, as atividades desenvolvidas ao longo do curso bem como as dificuldades encontradas para sua execução, as quais acabam por influenciar a reflexão feita pelos professores durante a realização do grupo focal, que nos forneceu o material com o qual procedemos a uma análise de conteúdos fundamentada no trabalho da pesquisadora francesa Laurence Bardin. Os resultados apontam para um efeito limitador na construção da concepção de autonomia docente dos professores provocado principalmente, pela centralidade que os conteúdos curriculares possuem nos processos educativos. Como produto dessa pesquisa é apresentado um curso de robótica no formato WEB no qual os conteúdos se apresentam conforme são exigidos, tanto para a montagem, como para a análise dos experimentos propostos. / The present work has the objective of analyzing the possibilities of studying the autonomy of teachers in a group of teachers of Science and Mathematics, from their experiences in an educational robotics course, from the perspective of Contreras and Habermas. Such an approach seeks, without diminishing the importance of contents, to withdraw its centrality from the teaching / learning process, bringing the development of the communicative skills of the teacher and his apprentice to the stage of this process. The work is based on the study of teaching autonomy made by the Spanish teacher José Contreras, and the communicative aspects of the course and its subsequent analysis, the German theory model of the argument presented by the philosopher Jürgen Habermas in his work Theory of Communicative Action (TAC). The methodology describes in detail the activities developed along the course as well as the difficulties encountered for its execution, which end up influencing the reflection made by the teachers during the realization of the focus group, who provided us with the material with which we proceed to a content analysis based on the work of French researcher Laurence Bardin. The results point to a limiting effect in the construction of teachers' conception of teacher autonomy provoked mainly by the centrality that the curricular contents have in the educational processes. As a product of this research, a robotics course in WEB format is presented in which the contents are presented as required, both for the assembly and for the analysis of the proposed experiments.

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo analisar as possibilidades de estudo sobre a autonomia docente em um grupo de professores de Ciências e Matemática, a partir de suas experiências vivenciadas em um curso de robótica educacional, sob a perspectiva de Contreras e Habermas. Tal abordagem procura, sem rebaixar a importância dos conteúdos, retirar sua centralidade do processo de ensino/aprendizagem, trazendo como protagonista, para o palco desse processo, o desenvolvimento das habilidades comunicativas do professor e de seu aprendiz. O trabalho se fundamenta no estudo da autonomia docente feita pelo professor espanhol José Contreras, e para os aspectos comunicativos do curso e de sua posterior análise, no modelo de teoria da argumentação apresentado pelo filósofo alemão Jürgen Habermas em sua obra Teoria do Agir Comunicativo (TAC). Na metodologia são descritas, em detalhes, as atividades desenvolvidas ao longo do curso bem como as dificuldades encontradas para sua execução, as quais acabam por influenciar a reflexão feita pelos professores durante a realização do grupo focal, que nos forneceu o material com o qual procedemos a uma análise de conteúdos fundamentada no trabalho da pesquisadora francesa Laurence Bardin. Os resultados apontam para um efeito limitador na construção da concepção de autonomia docente dos professores provocado principalmente, pela centralidade que os conteúdos curriculares possuem nos processos educativos. Como produto dessa pesquisa é apresentado um curso de robótica no formato WEB no qual os conteúdos se apresentam conforme são exigidos, tanto para a montagem, como para a análise dos experimentos propostos. / The present work has the objective of analyzing the possibilities of studying the autonomy of teachers in a group of teachers of Science and Mathematics, from their experiences in an educational robotics course, from the perspective of Contreras and Habermas. Such an approach seeks, without diminishing the importance of contents, to withdraw its centrality from the teaching / learning process, bringing the development of the communicative skills of the teacher and his apprentice to the stage of this process. The work is based on the study of teaching autonomy made by the Spanish teacher José Contreras, and the communicative aspects of the course and its subsequent analysis, the German theory model of the argument presented by the philosopher Jürgen Habermas in his work Theory of Communicative Action (TAC). The methodology describes in detail the activities developed along the course as well as the difficulties encountered for its execution, which end up influencing the reflection made by the teachers during the realization of the focus group, who provided us with the material with which we proceed to a content analysis based on the work of French researcher Laurence Bardin. The results point to a limiting effect in the construction of teachers' conception of teacher autonomy provoked mainly by the centrality that the curricular contents have in the educational processes. As a product of this research, a robotics course in WEB format is presented in which the contents are presented as required, both for the assembly and for the analysis of the proposed experiments.

There is a considerable body of literature on the challenges faced by learners who speak an African language at home but who are taught through the medium of English. Less research has focused, however, on contexts where isiXhosa-speaking learners have Afrikaans as their Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT), especially in Foundation Phase classrooms where teachers may not speak their learners’ home language. Such learners face the triple challenge of simultaneously learning a second language, learning to read in that language, and also learning new content and concepts through it. Using a multiple case study design, this investigation explores the mathematics teaching practices of Afrikaans-speaking Grade 3 teachers teaching isiXhosa-speaking learners through the medium of Afrikaans. Separate contextual profiles of the teaching practices of the participating teachers at the three schools are presented. Data were derived from school, classroom, and lesson observations (at least five complete mathematics lessons of each teacher), plus interviews with the teachers and with their school principals. By drawing on Vygotskian sociocultural theory and the interactive model of second language acquisition, this study highlighted the teaching practices of the three teachers as they mediated their learners’ mathematical conceptual development. An inductive data analysis approach was used to isolate recurring themes and patterns. Four main themes were identified: structuring of teaching and learning, facilitating of interaction, language use and implementation of mediating strategies. Analysis of the data shows that all three teachers’ language use displayed high levels of modified input, and high levels of context-embedded support. The levels of scaffolded learner talk were, however, found to be much lower than the levels of teacher talk, especially as far as academic registers were concerned. The teachers’ mediation strategies also displayed high levels of teacher-directed input which, on the whole, did not provide optimal opportunities for learners to develop independent levels of academic discourse. The study highlights the need for further research to inform teacher education and development with regard to more effective support structures to assist teachers with the sorts of challenges outlined above.

The present study investigates the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) Mathematics curriculum Design issues which have a bearing on underachievement at Grade 12 in selected schools in the King Williamstown Education District. It stems from the premise that curriculum design is plausible explanation for Mathematics achievement. In pursuit of this line of thought, the study looked at curriculum design types such as linear, sequential, and spiral arrangement of contents, as well as curriculum design aspects such as sequencing, progression, integration, pacing and organisation of contents. The study also looked at the perceptions educators and subject advisors have with respect to the bearing that these aspects have on underachievement in Mathematics. The interpretive paradigm was used to frame and focus the study. The sample included five schools selected on purpose, with underperformance in Mathematics as an inclusion criterion. These schools constituted the cases of this research. Data was obtained from the interviews which were conducted with the Mathematics educators of the selected schools, and the Mathematics subject advisor of the district to find out about their perceptions with regard to the impact of Mathematics curriculum design on students’ underachievement in Grade 12. In addition, the contents of the National Curriculum Statement for Mathematics documents were analysed. The findings revealed that the scope (contents coverage) is too wide, and that the skills which are supposed to be developed in learners per term are not fully developed. Time allocation is unreasonably limited as a result learners are unable to cover the scope for the term. Revisiting of topics done every year in a spiral fashion is good but the balance between superficiality and depth is not achieved, and that it is done without checking and understanding learners’ previous knowledge on the topic. The sequencing of certain topics has to be looked into and revised. The study also revealed that Mathematics curriculum design, link and progression from primary to high school is good but not all details covered which leave students with content gaps that impede the learning of certain topics. The researcher came out with the following recommendations: From this case study, it appears that teachers still need more empowerment in NCS. Educators still need training on the NCS so they can be confident with the Mathematics NCS content. In most schools the scope is not covered and skills that are supposed to be developed in learners every term are not developed because of slow learners and the time factor. Therefore, the Department of education needs to give the scope taking into consideration the slow learners and make sure that the time they give every term also takes into consideration the time used for tests. It also appears that the learners are slow because of the language barrier. Educators spend a lot of time saying the same things to the learners so that they can understand. Since the learners do almost all the subjects in English and write their examination in English if they are from an English medium school, it would be a good idea for the DOE to introduce English to the learners as early as grade R, as in the model C schools. If that is done, it might remove the language barrier and hence reduce underachievement in Mathematics. It appears that the educators revisit topics every year but do not balance superficiality and depth. Educators should be encouraged to take every topic seriously every year and not just repeat what they covered in the previous grade. They should use it as a base for the new content. If that is done, it might help the achievement in Mathematics.

In the study the researcher has investigated the effectiveness of the use of the balanced score card as a performance management tool for grade 12 mathematics teachers at Amajingqi Secondary School in Adelaide, in the Fort Beaufort district, circuit 8. Thirty learners, four principals, four educators who teach mathematics and the mathematics Head of Department in the schools were selected as participants in this research. A questionnaire (Appendix A) was handed out to principals, HOD’s, mathematics educators and learners doing mathematics in the four schools (4) selected for the study. The main findings of this study were: Mathematics teachers had an average of sixteen years of experience in the subject. Maths teachers do no pay much attention to slow learners. Learners are demotivated and need motivation to perform above average. Learners do not practice mathematics enough. Parental involvement is lacking in assisting learners with schoolwork let alone mathematics. Maths teachers are overloaded with work as in the schools researched one teacher would teach mathematics from Gr. 8 to 12.

The study’s purpose was to explore the components of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for teaching quadratic function in Grade 10 mathematics classrooms in Mogalakwena district, Limpopo. The study was mainly guided by Shulman’s PCK and it was categorised as content knowledge, knowledge of the curriculum, knowledge of learners and knowledge of teaching strategies. The researcher employed a qualitative case study research design to explore the teaching of three purposefully selected Grade 10 mathematics teachers regarding their knowledge of quadratic function, strategies employed to teach quadratic function and knowledge of Grade 10 mathematics learners in quadratic function. In this study the researcher argued that PCK strands are interwoven, and in order to teach mathematical concepts, such as quadratic function, effectively teachers should employ components of PCK to complement one another. Data were gathered by lesson observation and interviews. Findings revealed that concepts of quadratic function are inefficiently addressed in Grade 10 due to teachers’ lack or inadequacy in some aspects of PCK. Therefore, there is need to develop mathematics teachers’ PCK in the Mogalakwena district to enhance their teaching of Grade 10 quadratic function. / Mathematics Education / M. Ed. (Mathematics Education)

MEd (Curriculum Studies) / Department of Curriculum Studies / The purpose of this study was to investigate how continuing professional teacher development can improve learners’ achievement and schooling in Mathematical Literacy. This study adopted a qualitative research design. The qualitative research method was used to collect data. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. The population comprised of all Mathematical Literacy teachers, heads of departments and principals of schools in the Soutpansberg North Circuit. Purposive sampling was used to the select participants. The sample consisted of 3 school principals, 3 heads of departments’ and 9 teachers. Data was analysed thematically. The study revealed that continuing professional teacher development improves learner achievement, teacher skills and knowledge. The study recommended that teachers should be supported by the community, schools and the department of Basic Education, in order to improve their knowledge, skills and learner achievement. In addition, Learners’ needs, engaging parents, assessment strategies and teacher practice were used to measure the impact of CPTD on learner achievement. Of equal importance, teachers should further their studies and engage themselves in reading materials relevant to their profession. / NRF