Philosophiae Doctor - PhD (Mathematics and Science Education)

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https://hdl.handle.net/10566/10536

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Browsing by Author "Holtman, Lorna"

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    Malawian secondary school students' learning of science: historical background, performance and beliefs
    (University of the Western Cape, 2006) Dzama, Emmanuel Nafe Novel; Kolstoe, Stein Dankert; Holtman, Lorna; Mikalsen, Oyvind; School of Science and Mathematics Education; Faculty of Education
    This study explored the problem of poor performance in science among students who are provided secondary school places on merit in Malawi. Existing studies of the problem are inconsistent suggesting that these studies may have shed light on some parts of a complex problem. Questionnaires, interviews and analysis of documents were used to obtain information concerning students’ conceptions of science, science learning and events that eventuated into the problem in the past. The population for this study was 89 government and governmentassisted secondary schools. From that population eighteen schools were randomly selected from each of the six education divisions in the country. One thousand five hundred secondary class 3 students drawn from randomly selected schools participated. The participating students completed a 31item learning beliefs and practices  questionnaire with items drawn from the science education literature and adapted to the local situation and a selfefficacy and attribution of failure questionnaire. Forty students were interviewed about their concepts of science and science learning. Relevant documents found in the Malawi National Archives were analyzed to determine the origin of the problem.
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    Preferred contexts of Korean youth for the learning of school mathematics (grades 8-10)
    (2012) Kim, Sun Hi; Julie, Cyril; Holtman, Lorna; Mbekwa, Monde
    This study investigated real life situations which learners in South Korea grade 8-10 learners would prefer to be used in school mathematics.This thesis is based on the ROSMEII (Relevance of School Mathematics ducation) questionnaires and interviews, which was used to examine the preferred mathematical learning contexts for South Korean grade 8-10 learners. The study investigates the affective factors that pupils perceive to be of possible relevance for the learning and teaching of mathematic; and is aimed at providing data that might form part of a basis for a local theory of the mathematics curriculum. The standardized ROSMEII survey questionnaire of 23closeended items that relate to some aspects of mathematics on a 4-point Likert-type scale was administered to Korean grade 8-10 learners at the end of compulsory schooling, and mainly 14 to 16 year old cohorts. The data for this study were collected from a sample of 1839 learners drawn from 26 South Korean schools in the year 2009. Interviews were conducted to gauge the pupils‘ preference of the ROSMEII questionnaire contexts and used to validate learners‘ responses. In analyzing their responses, it became clear that, on the average, views expressed were common to all groups of pupils in South Korea (whether male or female, or from the metropolitan, city, or countryside). The clusters of the most preferred mathematical learning contexts are linked to youth culture, which learners are usually and easily engaged with in one way or another. These clusters include the sports, leisure and recreation cluster; planning a journey/popular youth culture cluster the technology cluster; the making of computer games, storing music and videos on CD‘s and Ipods. The lowest preferred mathematical learning contexts are: an agricultural cluster which focuses on agricultural matters and traditional games (yut). In conclusion, this study suggests that teachers should use contexts that increase learners‘ interest in classroom activities. Therefore mathematics curricula and textbooks which are appropriate to this context must be provided in order to provide more efficient mathematics education. It is imperative that the Korean school system must develop a particular program for nurturing learners‘ mathematical power. Furthermore, mathematics education policy makers must reconsider whether the current education system is appropriate, and also listen to learners‘ preferences when designing appropriate mathematics curriculum and textbooks.
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    A teaching strategy to enhance mathematical competency of pre-service teachers at UWC
    (University of the Western Cape, 2017) May, Bruce Mathew; Julie, Cyril; Holtman, Lorna
    In this study a mixed methods approach was employed to investigate how exposure to a teaching strategy based on spiral revision, productive practice and a mainly direct expository instructional method would influence the mathematical competencies of procedural fluency and conceptual understanding of pre-service mathematics teachers at a South African university. A secondary concern of the study was how retention and transfer abilities of participants would be influenced if they experience mathematics through a teaching strategy underpinned by spiral revision and productive practice. A revised version of the taxonomy table of Anderson et al (2001) was utilized to classify learning and instructional activities in the study in terms of mathematical reasoning and knowledge requirements. In this revised taxonomy the cognitive processes are understood to operate on knowledge structures during the process of cognition (i.e. reasoning categories based on knowledge categories.). The categories of the revised taxonomy table were the main measuring instrument for the study. The findings of the study indicate that the competencies of procedural fluency and conceptual understanding were positively enhanced by the teaching strategy. Some categories however did not show the same level of positive enhancement. Arguments are presented as to why this might be the case and possible solutions are mooted. Findings also indicate that retention and near transfer abilities of participants were positively enhanced. Far transfer abilities were unchanged post intervention. Explanations are offered for this finding and possible resolutions are suggested.