Thesis (MEd) -- University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Learning and the development of numeracy in the foundation phase are regarded as highly important. In this critical period learners attain the fundamental knowledge that is needed for future learning and development. A serious problem within South African schools is that a great number of foundation phase learners show difficulties in numeracy. Various reasons
can be provided for these difficulties, for example, learners do not receive
good teaching, they hold negative attitudes towards numeracy, they
encounter language barriers, and so forth.
It is important that the learners’ difficulties in numeracy are attended to
immediately and effectively, to be able to minimise the gaps between the
learners’ functioning level and the level the learner is suppose to be on. The
Western Cape Education Department (WCED) laid bare their concern with the
current problem in numeracy when they launched the WCED Literacy and
Numeracy Strategy 2006-2016. As part of this the Metropole North Education
and Management Development Centre (EMDC) requested and implemented
an intervention programme for grade 2 and grade 3 learners.
Part of this problem is that many foundation phase educators lack the
necessary knowledge to identify the learners with difficulties and especially to
attend to these difficulties.
The goal of this research study was to investigate the realization of an early
intervention programme implemented over a limited period of time of ten
weeks in grade 2 and grade 3 classrooms. The current study aimed at
providing educators with resources to offer learning support to their
disadvantaged learners within the Numeracy classroom. This study has
implications for the way in which educators approach and teach numeracy, as
well as for the type of learning support the educators provide their
disadvantaged learners with.
The intervention programme is based on a problem centered approach with
constructivism as underlying epistemology. This approach views the educator
as a facilitator who provides the learners with opportunities to be actively
involved in the learning environment to construct knowledge. The importance
of word problems and discussion within the Numeracy classroom are
emphasized and it is necessary that the educator create the appropriate
classroom atmosphere so that this approach can be implemented effectively.
Learning is an active process and it is the responsibility of the educator to
provide the learners with appropriate learning activities for learning and
development to take place.
The study made use of programme evaluation as research methodology.
Programme evaluation refers to a research goal instead of specific research
methods, because various methods can be used which may be quantitative or
qualitative in nature. The gathering of data was done through classroom
observations by the researcher, informal interviews with participating
educators, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews with the educators
at the four schools the researcher monitored intensively during the
implementation process of the intervention programme. The gathering of data
was an ongoing process and the researcher analysed and interpreted the
learners’ work at the end of the implementation process. The researcher
checked this analysis by means of the literature review, transcripts and field
notes. This formed the basis on which conclusions and recommendations
could be made.
The conclusions confirmed the importance of early intervention and the
efficacy of the problem centered approach within the numeracy classroom. It
also confirmed the disadvantages of the training model that was used, that is
the Cascade model. With this study it was possible to determine that a ten
week intervention programme was too short a period to observe meaningful
improvements in learners. Therefore further research should be done on
addressing learners’ difficulties and to train and support educators to provide
learning support to their learners.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/1623 |
| Date | 03 1900 |
| Creators | Engelbrecht, Adel |
| Contributors | Murray, J. C., Gierdien, F., University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Curriculum Studies. |
| Publisher | Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | Afrikaans |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Stellenbosch |
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