M.Ed. / This study investigates junior primary teachers' conception of problem-centred Mathematics teaching with the view to describe and also explain their conception. The rationale for the investigation is derived from the move being made in South African Mathematics teaching from traditional teaching to constructivist and problem-centred teaching. Teachers have had to change from being authoritative and focused on the product to become facilitators of the learning process. This move implies that teachers have to put aside most of what they have been doing up till now to be able to adopt constructivist ways of thinking. Problem-centred teaching is in strong contrast to these traditional teaching methods. Such a shift in paradigm could prove to be traumatic for teachers and pupild. The report of the study commences with a theory framework in which constructivism is clearly explicated. The constructivist view of knowledge, with the relationship between public knowledge and personal knowledge and the forming of personal knowledge is discussed. The focus then shifts to learning through cognitive restructuring which is facilitated by assimilation and accommodation. In the constructivist view, learning is also facilitated by social interaction and reflection. Both the processes and the relationship between social interaction and reflection are discussed. Most importantly, learning is facilitated through constructivist teaching, but successful teaching depends on teachers'conception thereof. Conception is described as one of the most important components of teachers' personal teaching theory. Teachers use their personal teaching theory to reflect on teaching and learning. The literature review is concluded with a discussion on the nature of constructivist teaching and the role of the teacher in such a teaching model. The theory framework is complemented by a chapter on the design of the research, substantiating the choice of format and methods of data collection and analyses. The data is reported in the final chapter in which examples of raw data from transcriptions and sketches are presented. Finally, the consolidated data is interpreted. - The most significant finding of this study is that junior primary teachers in this group have a negative conception of problem-centred Mathematics teaching. It appears that the most important reason for their negative conception is that they were not adequately equipped for the contructivist approach towards Mathematics teaching. This study then proposes that for teachers to be able to teach from a constructivist paradigm they need relevant constructivist training, more support from the experts, but also more support from each other. They need to change their teaching conception to a constructivist conception of teaching.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:9960 |
| Date | 11 September 2012 |
| Creators | Roos, Jannette Elsie |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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