BEd foundation phase fourth year student teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards teaching mathematics and the self-reported factors that influence these self-efficacy beliefs
- Authors: Harrison, Chloe
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Elementary) -- South Africa , Mathematics teachers -- Training of -- South Africa , Educational evaluation -- South Africa , Student teachers -- Training of -- South Africa , Student teachers -- Rating of -- South Africa , Social cognitive theory , Self-efficacy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147004 , vital:38584
- Description: The underperformance of mathematics teaching and learning is a pressing concern in South Africa. Many foundation phase in-service teachers show inadequate mathematics content knowledge which creates barriers to their learners acquiring adequate mathematics skills. Teacher training programmes offer a key opportunity to improve the instructional practices of teachers at foundation phase level. In order to improve the teaching skills of in-service teachers, one focus must be on teacher training programmes. Unfortunately, there are many foundation phase student teachers who are leaving the profession within the first few years of teaching reportedly due to low levels of motivation. This research investigates the self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service student teachers. It also focuses on foundation phase student teachers as they experience significant challenges to their self-efficacy beliefs in mathematics and mathematics teaching. Self-efficacy is the key theory of the study. It stems from Bandura’s social cognitive theory and is an individual’s judgments about their capabilities, skills and perceived performance. This qualitative research adopts an interpretivist approach which seeks to identify Bed foundation phase fourth year student teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards teaching mathematics and the self-reported factors influencing such beliefs. This research found that BEd foundation phase fourth year student teachers have low self-efficacy beliefs towards teaching mathematics. The purpose of this research is to raise awareness of the BEd student teachers’ low self-efficacy beliefs towards teaching mathematics. The results from this research will provide a platform for future intervention research, as well as potentially influencing student teacher training programmes.
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- Date Issued: 2020
A study of mathematics teacher identity as shaped through participation in a mathematics teacher professional development programme
- Authors: Kangela, Nyameka
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Mathematics Teacher Enrichment Programme (MTEP) (Rhodes University) , Mathematics teachers -- Psychology , Mathematics teachers -- Psychology -- Case studies , Mathematics teachers -- Training of -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/7832 , vital:21305
- Description: There is an abundance of evidence suggesting that all is not well in mathematics education in South Africa. It is also common cause that the role of mathematics teachers is central to finding sustainable solutions to what is commonly referred to as a mathematics crisis. The purpose of this study is to explore the process of change in selected mathematics teachers’ identities as they participated in a mathematics teacher Professional Development Programme (PDP) at Rhodes University. The core of the PDP was a teacher enrichment programme called the Mathematics Teacher Enrichment Programme (MTEP), under the aegis of the First Rand Foundation (FRF) Mathematics Education Chair at Rhodes University. MTEP foregrounded and emphasized the teaching of mathematics for conceptual understanding. The research approach was qualitative, and it used elements of the methods associated with educational ethnography. The data was collected from five teachers from five different schools that participated in the FRF Maths Chair project. I used Wenger’s (1998) three modes of belonging to analyse the identities of the five participants. This was achieved through analysing the teachers’ practice with a particular focus on teaching for conceptual understanding. I used Sfard & Prusak’s (2005) framework to analyse the participants’ journey from an actual to a designated identity through their participation in MTEP. The participants’ changing sense of belonging to MTEP was a key element in transforming their practice to teaching for conceptual understanding. I assumed the role of a participant observer during MTEP sessions, and of an outside observer as a researcher.The study found that the selected teachers’ participation in the MTEP community of practice strongly encouraged them to accumulate shared histories of learning and teaching. The study found that as participating teachers adopted and grew into their designated identity they partially embraced and implemented a conceptual teaching approach. The gap between their actual and their designated identity was partly closed as they sought to align their teaching with MTEP’s goal of conceptual teaching.
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- Date Issued: 2017
An investigation into the mathematics knowledge for teaching required to develop grade 2 learners’ number sense through counting
- Authors: Chikiwa, Samukeliso
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Elementary) -- South Africa , Mathematics teachers -- Training of -- South Africa , Number concept in children -- South Africa , Number concept -- Study and teaching -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/6042 , vital:21019
- Description: Poor learner performance in mathematics has a long-standing record in South Africa. More than two decades after attainment of democracy South Africa is still seeking ways of addressing this crisis. Research around poor mathematics points to a number of factors, however, the dominant being that South African teachers lack both mathematics content and the pedagogical knowledge to teach it effectively. Ball, Thames and Phelps (2008) refer to the knowledge to teach mathematics effectively as Mathematics Knowledge for Teaching [MKfT]. MKfT combines the knowledge of both the content with the pedagogical skills. Mathematics teachers in South Africa are said to lack MKfT to teach mathematics in ways that enhance conceptual understanding and the effect of this deficiency is felt as far back in the education system as Foundation Phase. Research suggests Foundation Phase teachers do not develop the learners’ number sense well enough to equip them with essential mathematical strategies and proficiency that would help them learn mathematics with ease and understanding. This deficit expands as learners move up the grades. My qualitative research, case study approach was employed to investigate MKfT enacted in the teaching of an expert Foundation Phase teacher, which she used while developing number sense in her Grade Two learners. A key aim is to inform fellow Foundation Phase teachers and Foundation Phase teacher educators, both in-service and in-training, of the key aspects of MKfT required in developing number sense. The study found that Foundation Phase teaching requires employment of all the domains of the MKfT to develop number sense to Grade 2 learners. These domains are complexly interconnected and interdependent and the research shows that while one needs the full set to be able to teach effectively, the expertise becomes visible in the seamless and somewhat automated interweaving of these domains. Furthermore, the research will illuminate how such seamless and automated interweaving can render the individual domains difficult to discern.
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- Date Issued: 2017
A case study of a pre-service mathematics education course to grow and develop proficient teaching in mathematics in the intermediate phase
- Authors: Lee, Amanda Jane
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Mathematics -- Study and teaching -- South Africa , Mathematics teachers -- Training of -- South Africa , Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Elementary) -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2004 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015664
- Description: This research study investigated the ways in which a mathematics module, informed by an enactivist philosophy, enabled pre-service teachers to unpack the reality of their teaching practice in terms of proficient teaching. Given the generally poor mathematics results in South Africa it is not enough for teachers to be merely proficient in Mathematics. They also need to be in a position to explain important mathematical concepts to children in a manner that will encourage and develop an understanding of the basic mathematical concepts. It was my intention with this study to determine whether a mathematics education module, that embraced the underlying themes of enactivism as part of its teaching pedagogy, could have the potential to develop and increase the skills of pre-service teachers’ teaching for proficiency in Mathematics. The mathematics module was underpinned by five themes of enactivism namely: autonomy, embodiment, emergence, sense-making and experience and was designed to supplement the pre-service teachers’ basic skills in Mathematics in the Intermediate Phase. This mathematics module was offered to fourth year pre-service teachers completing a B.Ed. in the Foundation Phase at a private institute specialising in the training of teachers. The theoretical framework was informed by enactivism and how the themes of enactivism could be used as a vehicle to develop teaching proficiency. The study was qualitative in nature and situated within an interpretivist paradigm. The specific perspectives of interpretivism that were used were hermeneutics, phenomenology and reflexivity. The research design was a case study that contained elements of action research and encompassed three phases of data collection. The first phase focused on the pre-service teachers’ approach to teaching Mathematics and what this brought forth in terms of the reality of their teaching practice and the problems they encountered. The second phase undertook to determine what growth and development of teaching proficiency in Mathematics had emerged over the research period. The final phase was undertaken after the pre-service teachers had graduated and were employed as full time teachers in the Intermediate Phase. The analytical framework and lens through which the data was analysed was that of Kilpatrick, Swafford and Findell’s (2001) strands of mathematical proficiency. The argument that I present is that the themes of enactivism did contribute to the growth of the pre-service teachers’ teaching for mathematical proficiency. The themes of embodiment and experience were major contributions in revealing that this was a reality for the pre-service teachers from a practical perspective and was what they would be able to take away with them. However the theme of emergence stood out as the principle that generated the most awareness and growth and which, in turn, affected the participants’ autonomy.
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- Date Issued: 2014