Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-179). / This mixed methods dissertation investigates whether the Matric Mathematics results and enrolments at high schools in the EMDC East zone of Cape Town have been impacted by the availability of computers and mathematical software (as provided by the Khanya Project); how the teachers at one school in Khayelitsha, Cape Town are using the computer as a tool to teach Mathematics, and whether their pedagogy changes between the Mathematics lessons in the conventional classroom and the computer lab. A series of statistical tests (Mann-Whitney U test; independent samples t-test; paired samples t-tests and the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test) were applied to various samples of the 2007 Matric Mathematics data of high schools in the EMDC East, obtained from WCED. What was concluded was that there was no significant difference between the Matric Mathematics results of the schools with the computers and those without; no significant change in the results after the Khanya labs were installed; no significant change in the percentage of pupils that passed Matric Mathematics; and no significant change in Higher Grade Mathematics enrolment rates. The overall conclusion from the quantitative research was thus that no significant differences were brought about by the use of computers in Mathematics in the EMDC East schools. So, what does happen when the computers are being used? This led to qualitative research on whether and how computers impact pedagogy: observations of ten Mathematics lessons in a selective township school in Khayelitsha were undertaken, and transcriptions made. These transcriptions were analysed in order to determine how the teachers were using the computers as a pedagogical tool, and whether their pedagogy varies across different lesson contexts (face-to-face lessons and computer lab lessons). In the case of the former question, it was found that the computers were primarily being used as a drill-and-practise tool for revision purposes; in other words, as though they were electronic textbooks. In order to answer the latter question, each sentence of each teacher was categorised according to an analytical framework in order to determine if there were any variation in semiotic mediation (in other words, teacher talk) between the classroom and the computer lab. Chi-squared tests for independence indicated that there was a significant, moderate to strong association between the location of the lesson and the type of talk; thus there is significant variation in semiotic variation between the two venues and the teachers' pedagogy does vary between the face-to-face classroom and the computer lab. Further chi-squared tests also indicated significant, moderate to strong associations between the location of the lesson and the scale of interaction (class or individual); and between the type of talk and scale of interaction.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/14754 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Spencer-Smith, Garth |
| Contributors | Hardman, Joanne |
| Publisher | University of Cape Town, Faculty of Humanities, School of Education |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Master Thesis, Masters, MPhil |
| Format | application/pdf |
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