Thesis (MEd (Education))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016. / Numerical and algebraic equations require understanding of the equal sign as an
equivalence relation. Teachers and learners, however, often have an operational, rather than
a relational, understanding of the equal sign. This conception is viewed as a misconception.
This study investigates the extent to which Grade 6 learners at a particular school have this
and other misconceptions regarding equality, with the equal sign as focus. It also
investigates this school’s Grade 1 to 6 teachers’ specialised content knowledge (SCK)
regarding equality, again focusing on the equal sign. Ultimately the study wishes to establish
whether there might be a possible relationship between the level of these teachers’ SCK of
the equal sign and learners’ misconceptions of the equal sign. In particular, it tries to answer
the question whether teachers’ SCK of the equal sign could possibly promote or prevent the
forming of such misconceptions in learners, as well as whether teachers’ SCK of the equal
sign could possibly help them identify learners’ misconceptions and help learners form the
correct conceptions. This research project is framed within an interpretive paradigm. It
focuses on one school taking the form of a theory-led case study in which a mixed method
approach is used. Data collection methods include teacher questionnaires followed by two
focus group interviews with teachers, based on data collected from questionnaires. In
addition, data is collected through a series of lesson observations on number concepts and
assessment. Grade 6 learners answered a set of questions structured in the form of a test to
investigate their understanding of equality and the equal sign. Six learners were purposefully
selected, based on their answers to the questions, and interviewed. Although this school is a high-performing academic school, results indicate that few learners
have a flexible operational or basic relational view of the equal sign. The same group of
learners that struggle with closure seems to struggle with the misconception of using all the
numbers in an equation to solve a particular equation. The majority of Grade 6 learners
cannot define the equal sign correctly. According to results, the nature of Grade 1- 6
teachers’ SCK of the equal sign shows that teachers lack skills to prevent, reduce or correct
misconceptions about the equal sign.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:cput/oai:localhost:20.500.11838/2369 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Meyer, Bronwin Colleen |
| Contributors | Vermeulen, Cornelis |
| Publisher | Cape Peninsula University of Technology |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/za/ |
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