This study had two components: 1) Investigating the conceptual understanding of teachers
teaching elementary mathematics at primary schools in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, who had
been successful in their mathematics modules in the National Professional Diploma in Education
(NPDE) teacher upgrading program, and 2) Investigating the influence of their mathematical lifehistories
on their understanding and personal philosophies about mathematics. It firstly required
the NPDE students from the University of KwaZulu-Natal to complete a questionnaire adapted
from the TELT interview schedule used by Liping Ma (1999). This questionnaire was to assess
whether these high scoring teachers had an understanding of basic mathematical concepts that
could have been regarded as being profound. The second part of the study was designed in order
to get these teachers to examine their mathematical life histories and then to look at how their life
histories could have influenced their level of understanding. It was found that these teachers were
procedurally capable and were aware of the algorithms that could be used to solve the problems
posed, but they lacked deep understanding of the concepts and were thus conceptually weak.
None of the teachers demonstrated an understanding of the fundamental mathematics concepts
that were assessed, that could be regarded as been ‘profound’. The mathematical life history
portion of this study revealed that these teachers, having experienced mathematics education
very differently due to their Apartheid influenced education, mentioned that there were definite
influences that had a marked effect on their outlook on the subject and thus their belief in their
ability to do basic/ fundamental mathematics. / Thesis (M.Ed. (School of Education and Development)) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/255 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Van Wyk, Andre Mervyn. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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