Exploring Foundation Phase pre-service teachers’ mathematical pedagogical content knowledge for teaching additive mental mathematics strategies
- Authors: Kumm, Marisa Luisa
- Date: 2025-04-03
- Subjects: Pedagogical content knowledge , Mathematics Study and teaching (Primary) South Africa , Pre-service teacher education , Student teachers South Africa , Addition Study and teaching (Elementary) , Number concept Study and teaching (Elementary)
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/480018 , vital:78389
- Description: Poor learner performance in mathematics remains a concern in South African primary and secondary education according to continuous national and international assessments. Many learners fall behind in the early grades without being provided the opportunity to establish a solid foundational number sense. This is an essential requirement to progress into the higher grades. Addressing the challenges of number sense in the Foundation Phase is mandatory. This study aimed to investigate third-year Foundation Phase pre-service teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of their additive reasoning strategies (a key aspect of number sense) at a private teacher education institution, guided by the question: What content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge do third-year Foundation Phase pre-service teachers have of additive reasoning mental mathematics strategies? Several researchers have identified the need to develop pre-service teachers’ mathematical content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. This study was guided by Shulman’s (1986) constructs of teacher knowledge. This qualitative, descriptive study, which formed part of the Mental Mathematics – Work Integrated Learning (MM-WIL) programme, collected data from an interpretivist perspective. The information for this study was gathered from participants who agreed to be part of the study. The study collected data through pre- and post-intervention questionnaires that had two parts. The first part assessed pre-service teachers’ methods of solving four basic additive reasoning calculations (that lent themselves to using the strategies of bridging through ten, jump strategy, and rounding and adjusting). The second part of the questionnaire asked pre-service teachers to describe these strategies and how they would teach them, with the aim of understanding their additive reasoning skills and ability to use and teach these mental strategies. Key findings are that many pre-service teachers do not have the content knowledge to solve basic calculations using efficient methods. These are skills that they are required to teach in the Foundation Phase classroom. The findings in this study highlight the urgent need to address the weak content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and inefficient unit based counting methods of many pre-service teachers to improve learners’ development and fundamental understanding of numbers that allows for flexible and efficient calculation. , Thesis (MEd) -- Faculty of Education, Primary and Early Childhood Education, 2025
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2025-04-03
- Authors: Kumm, Marisa Luisa
- Date: 2025-04-03
- Subjects: Pedagogical content knowledge , Mathematics Study and teaching (Primary) South Africa , Pre-service teacher education , Student teachers South Africa , Addition Study and teaching (Elementary) , Number concept Study and teaching (Elementary)
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/480018 , vital:78389
- Description: Poor learner performance in mathematics remains a concern in South African primary and secondary education according to continuous national and international assessments. Many learners fall behind in the early grades without being provided the opportunity to establish a solid foundational number sense. This is an essential requirement to progress into the higher grades. Addressing the challenges of number sense in the Foundation Phase is mandatory. This study aimed to investigate third-year Foundation Phase pre-service teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of their additive reasoning strategies (a key aspect of number sense) at a private teacher education institution, guided by the question: What content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge do third-year Foundation Phase pre-service teachers have of additive reasoning mental mathematics strategies? Several researchers have identified the need to develop pre-service teachers’ mathematical content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. This study was guided by Shulman’s (1986) constructs of teacher knowledge. This qualitative, descriptive study, which formed part of the Mental Mathematics – Work Integrated Learning (MM-WIL) programme, collected data from an interpretivist perspective. The information for this study was gathered from participants who agreed to be part of the study. The study collected data through pre- and post-intervention questionnaires that had two parts. The first part assessed pre-service teachers’ methods of solving four basic additive reasoning calculations (that lent themselves to using the strategies of bridging through ten, jump strategy, and rounding and adjusting). The second part of the questionnaire asked pre-service teachers to describe these strategies and how they would teach them, with the aim of understanding their additive reasoning skills and ability to use and teach these mental strategies. Key findings are that many pre-service teachers do not have the content knowledge to solve basic calculations using efficient methods. These are skills that they are required to teach in the Foundation Phase classroom. The findings in this study highlight the urgent need to address the weak content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and inefficient unit based counting methods of many pre-service teachers to improve learners’ development and fundamental understanding of numbers that allows for flexible and efficient calculation. , Thesis (MEd) -- Faculty of Education, Primary and Early Childhood Education, 2025
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2025-04-03
Exploring pre-service teachers’ reflective practice in the context of video-based lesson analysis
- Authors: Chikiwa, Samukeliso
- Date: 2020-04-30
- Subjects: Pre-service teacher education , Reflective practice , Video recordings in education , Mathematics teachers Training of South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/355357 , vital:64492
- Description: This study explored the development of reflective practice in foundation phase pre-service teachers in the context of video-based lesson analysis at a university in South Africa. The study was conducted in the field of mathematics education, responding to the urgent need to equip pre-service South African teachers with the knowledge and skills for effective mathematics teaching. The research is foregrounded by the continuing poor performance of South African learners in mathematics at all levels of education in the country, which has been linked to the inadequate knowledge and skills of mathematics teachers. Pre-service teacher education is putting considerable effort into improving the preparation of mathematics teachers and developing their ability to reflect on their teaching practice is one of the strategies being employed for this purpose. Research has demonstrated the importance of reflective practice (RP) in both developing and extending teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching. This study therefore contributes to current research that supports the development of RP as a professional skill for promoting the acquisition of knowledge for teaching in pre-service teacher education. The study adopted a qualitative case study approach with two phases of data collection. In Phase 1 I collected and analysed three sets of 19 pre-service teachers’ written reflections to establish the nature of the reflections that they developed when analysing video-recorded mathematics lessons of experienced teachers’ practice. Phase 2 was conducted with four PSTs who reflected on video-recorded mathematics lessons of their own practice, and similarly sought to investigate the nature of the reflections they developed when reflecting on practice. The four PSTs wrote one set of reflections on their own lessons, went through three sessions of facilitator-guided reflections, then wrote another set of reflections to establish if the support provided in small group facilitator-guided sessions improved their reflections. Iterative content analysis was employed to analyse the PSTs’ written reflections, using an analytic tool that I developed for this purpose through merging Lee’s (2007) and Muir and Beswick’s (2007) levels of reflection frameworks. My model had four levels of reflection: description, explanation, suggestion and reflectivity. The names of each of the levels connect to the key indicator for that level. PSTs’ written reflections were coded and analysed according to these levels. The study found that PSTs’ initial reflections were mostly description of general classroom events with little reflection at the levels of explanation and suggestion, and an absence of reflectivity. Most reflections focused on general events in the lesson rather than mathematical events, even though the six lens framework they were given to guide their reflections prompted them to steer their attention towards mathematical events. The second and third sets of reflections, although mostly still at level 1, showed some shifts towards explanation and suggestion, although an increased focus on mathematical events though reflectivity was still largely absent. No PST reached the fourth level of reflectivity in Phase 1. However, in Phase 2, the PSTs’ reflections after the three small group facilitator-guided sessions included some evidence of reflectivity. The findings suggest the need for pre-service teacher educators to make a concerted effort to teach PSTs what reflection is and how to reflect on their practice. The findings also showed the need for small group facilitator-guided support in the development of PSTs’ reflective practice. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2020
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020-04-30
- Authors: Chikiwa, Samukeliso
- Date: 2020-04-30
- Subjects: Pre-service teacher education , Reflective practice , Video recordings in education , Mathematics teachers Training of South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/355357 , vital:64492
- Description: This study explored the development of reflective practice in foundation phase pre-service teachers in the context of video-based lesson analysis at a university in South Africa. The study was conducted in the field of mathematics education, responding to the urgent need to equip pre-service South African teachers with the knowledge and skills for effective mathematics teaching. The research is foregrounded by the continuing poor performance of South African learners in mathematics at all levels of education in the country, which has been linked to the inadequate knowledge and skills of mathematics teachers. Pre-service teacher education is putting considerable effort into improving the preparation of mathematics teachers and developing their ability to reflect on their teaching practice is one of the strategies being employed for this purpose. Research has demonstrated the importance of reflective practice (RP) in both developing and extending teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching. This study therefore contributes to current research that supports the development of RP as a professional skill for promoting the acquisition of knowledge for teaching in pre-service teacher education. The study adopted a qualitative case study approach with two phases of data collection. In Phase 1 I collected and analysed three sets of 19 pre-service teachers’ written reflections to establish the nature of the reflections that they developed when analysing video-recorded mathematics lessons of experienced teachers’ practice. Phase 2 was conducted with four PSTs who reflected on video-recorded mathematics lessons of their own practice, and similarly sought to investigate the nature of the reflections they developed when reflecting on practice. The four PSTs wrote one set of reflections on their own lessons, went through three sessions of facilitator-guided reflections, then wrote another set of reflections to establish if the support provided in small group facilitator-guided sessions improved their reflections. Iterative content analysis was employed to analyse the PSTs’ written reflections, using an analytic tool that I developed for this purpose through merging Lee’s (2007) and Muir and Beswick’s (2007) levels of reflection frameworks. My model had four levels of reflection: description, explanation, suggestion and reflectivity. The names of each of the levels connect to the key indicator for that level. PSTs’ written reflections were coded and analysed according to these levels. The study found that PSTs’ initial reflections were mostly description of general classroom events with little reflection at the levels of explanation and suggestion, and an absence of reflectivity. Most reflections focused on general events in the lesson rather than mathematical events, even though the six lens framework they were given to guide their reflections prompted them to steer their attention towards mathematical events. The second and third sets of reflections, although mostly still at level 1, showed some shifts towards explanation and suggestion, although an increased focus on mathematical events though reflectivity was still largely absent. No PST reached the fourth level of reflectivity in Phase 1. However, in Phase 2, the PSTs’ reflections after the three small group facilitator-guided sessions included some evidence of reflectivity. The findings suggest the need for pre-service teacher educators to make a concerted effort to teach PSTs what reflection is and how to reflect on their practice. The findings also showed the need for small group facilitator-guided support in the development of PSTs’ reflective practice. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2020
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020-04-30
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