School of Science & Mathematics Education

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Browsing by Subject "Cape Town"

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    Implementing an intentional teaching model to investigate the algebraic reasoning of grade 9 mathematics learners
    (University of the Western Cape, 2019) Davids, Jade Ethel; Mbekwa, Monde
    This research has employed an intentional teaching model to investigate the algebraic reasoning of grade 9 learners from a low socio-economic background. It has also sought to study how learners engage with algebra to make generalizations and to scrutinize any misconceptions deriving from the experience. They looked for patterns, paid attention to aspects of the patterns that are important and then generalized from familiar to unfamiliar situations. Algebraic reasoning underpins all mathematical thinking including arithmetic because it allows us to explore the structure of mathematics. This study is based on the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement which states that learners are expected to investigate patterns to establish the relationships between variables, as well as represent and analyse the change of patterns. The study also had a huge emphasis on algebra. According to Mphuthi & Machaba (2016): “Algebraic expressions form part of the senior phase CAPS curriculum in South Africa. A substantial amount of time is allocated to this section on evaluating expressions and simplifications of algebraic expressions in grade 7-9.” The study is premised on a qualitative research paradigm and a design-based research methodology for data collection. A set of tasks based on algebraic patterns and generalizations was given to an opportunistic sample of 20 grade 9 learners in a school in Delft, a low socio-economic suburb about 30 kilometres from Cape Town in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Three weeks after completing the tasks, learners were interviewed to identify their reasoning and how they felt about the tasks. The results of the study show that the majority of the learners struggled with tasks especially when asked what the rules they could derive from the patterns. Learners did not seem to understand what they were doing because they were unable to articulate the given tasks in words and did not have knowledge of concepts like the perimeter.
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    Social and cultural relevance of aspects of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), meteorological literacy and meteorological science conceptions
    (University of the Western Cape, 2020) Riffel, Alvin Daniel; Luckay, Melanie B.
    This research study examines those aspects of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) that could be socially and culturally relevant in the Western Cape Province, South Africa, for teaching meteorological science concepts in a grade 9 Social Science (Geography) classroom using dialogical argumentation as an instructional model (DAIM). The literature reviewed in this study explains the use of argumentation as an instructional method of classroom teaching in particular dialogical argumentation, combined with IKS (Indigenous Knowledge Systems), which in this study is seen as a powerful tool both in enhancing learners’ views and positively identifying indigenous knowledge systems within their own cultures and communities, and as tool that facilitates the learning of (meteorological) literacy and science concepts. With the development of the New Curriculum Statements (NCS) and the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) for schools, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) of South Africa acknowledges a strong drive towards recognising and affirming the critical role of IK, especially with respect to science and technology education. The policy suggests that the Department of Education take steps to begin the phased integration of IK into curricula and relevant accreditation frameworks. Using a quasi-experimental research design model, the study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods (mixed-methods) to collect data in two public secondary schools in Cape Town, in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. A survey questionnaire on attitudes towards, and perceptions of high school, of a group of grade 9 learners, as well as their conceptions of weather, was administered before the main study to give the researcher baseline information and to develop pilot instruments to use in the main study. An experimental group (E-group) of learners were exposed to an intervention - the results were recorded against a control group (C-group) that were exposed to no intervention. Both the E-group and C-group were exposed to a Meteorological Literacy Test (MLT) evaluation before and after the DAIM intervention. The results from the two groups were then compared and analysed according to the two theoretical frameworks underpinning the study, namely, Toulmin’s Argumentation Pattern - TAP (Toulmin, 1958) and Contiguity Argumentation Theory - CAT (Ogunniyi, 1997). The findings of this study revealed that: Firstly, the socio-cultural background of learners has an influence on their conceptions of weather prediction and there was a significant difference between boy’s and girls’ pre-test conceptions about the existence of indigenous knowledge systems within the community they live in. For instance, from the learners’ excerpts, it emerged that the girls presented predominantly rural experiences as opposed to those of the boys which were predominantly from urban settings. Secondly, those E-group learners exposed to the DAIM intervention shifted from being predominantly equipollent to the school science to emergent stances and they found a way of connecting their IK to the school science. The DAIM model which allowed argumentation to occur amongst learners seemed to have enhanced their understanding of the relevance of IK and how its underlying scientific claims relate to that of school science. Thirdly, the argumentation-based instructional model was found to be effective to a certain extent in equipping the in-service teachers with the necessary argumentation skills that could enable them to take part in a meaningful discourse. The study drew on the personal experiences and encounters from a variety of sources. These included storytelling-and sharing, academic talks with local community members recorded during the research journey, formal round table discussion and talks at international and local conferences, conference presentations, informal interviews, indigenous chats at social event-meetings, and shared experiences at IKS training workshops as a facilitator. These encounters lead to the formulation of the research study and occurred throughout the country in various parts of the Southern African continent including: Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Botswana, Tanzania and Mozambique.