3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Effects of professional noticing of learners’ errors and misconceptions on grade 11 learners’ trigonometry performance in the Johannesburg East District, Gauteng South Africa(2024) Ndebele, AshtonGrade 12 learners perform poorly in trigonometry in the final National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations. The errors committed by learners in trigonometry lead to a high failure rate in trigonometry and hence in mathematics. The traditional teaching method that has found a home in many South African learning spaces is largely blamed for failing to effectively deal with learner errors in trigonometry. This study investigates probing learner errors in grade 11 trigonometry and the efficacy of professional noticing. The constructivist theory of learning framed the study and professional noticing the conceptual framework. Purposive sampling was used to select two schools in Johannesburg East District South Africa. The sample size was of n= 176 grade 11 mathematics learners from the two schools and five teachers. One school was taken as a control group with n= 97 learners and the other school became the experimental group with n= 79 learners. In addition, a questionnaire was used to gather information from the teachers about the learner errors and misconceptions they observed in their classes. Five teachers responded to the questionnaire and their responses were analysed qualitatively. For learners, after a pre-test was administered to study learner errors and misconceptions in trigonometry to both groups. Thereafter, the treatment group had an intervention using professional noticing approaches. Also, and probing to elicit learner thinking was done while the control group used a traditional teaching approach. A mixed method research was used and a quasi-experimental research design with a non-equivalent group design was employed. The pre-test scores for both groups were analysed using a t-test and this test revealed that both groups were at the same level in terms of trigonometry performance. The scores from the post-tests were analysed using ANCOVA. ANCOVA test revealed that the intervention used with the experimental group was superior in improving both dealing with learner errors and overall performance on the trigonometry topic. An error analysis conducted post-intervention revealed that learners managed to overcome their errors and misconceptions in the treatment group compared to the control group.Item Personal histories as a component of an ethnography of expert assessment practice in the workplace.(2012-03-12) Msimango, Sindiswa NontembisoThis research report describes the learning histories of computer assistants and expert assessment practice. This takes place in a workplace where computer training, specifically the fixing of hardware (CPU) occurs. It is hoped that the evidence collected might contribute towards the recognition and understanding of tacit assessment on the National Qualifications Framework, (NQF). In uncovering these learning histories and expert assessment practices, a component of ethnography which involves case history interviews and discussions was used. The theoretical framework used was situated learning theory and the legitimate peripheral participation of the computer assistants. This framework is itself embedded in the theory of constructivism. Case histories used as a component of ethnography is part of a bigger ethnographic project developed by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). This particular study will contribute along with other projects in the University of Witwatersrand research group, to make up a full ethnographic account of learning and assessment in the workplace.Item Grade R teachers' perceptions of early childhood development and how these impact on classroom practice.(2012-02-27) Excell, Lorayne AnneIn this qualitative research study I explored Grade R teachers’ perceptions of early childhood development and how these impact on their classroom practice. Using an early childhood theoretical framework which was predominately informed by developmental and socio-cultural perspectives I interrogated teachers’ understandings of children, quality classroom practice and early childhood contexts. Although the literature acknowledges the contested nature of quality within the ECD/Grade R context, research evidence indicates that the role of the teacher is pivotal if education is to be successfully realized in the early years. This notion of quality embraces particular aspects of practice such as managing the classroom environment, being able to engage children in the learning process through a process of sustained shared thinking and supporting learning in a variety of different contexts. Furthermore, good practice is informed by an in-depth understanding of contemporary issues embedded in socio-cultural contexts of children and families. Within the South African context Grade R is a problematic year despite being the first year of the Foundation Phase. Policy documents informing practice are ambiguous, Grade R teachers are not required to have a formal teaching qualification and they are not afforded the same conditions of service as other teachers. All these factors have served to marginalize the Grade R teacher. The research sample comprised twelve teachers from ten schools who were purposively selected from GDE and free standing community Grade R classes. An important selection criterion was a willingness to be involved in the project. In this multiple case study data were collected through classroom observations, interviews, critical incidents and documentary evidence. The research findings were first analysed according to three broad themes and then further interrogated through three knowledge positions identified by Mac Naughton, (2003) as conforming, reforming and transforming positions. iv Key findings revealed that although participants could not be definitively situated in any one of the three knowledge positions their practices were largely conforming; with few teachers using aspects of reforming practice. This study is significant within the South African context in that it shows similar findings to those of research done by Nias (1985) and Anning (1991) relating to teachers’ perceptions of themselves and their practice. Teachers perceived themselves as being kind, caring and loving individuals who placed the welfare of children in their care ahead of academic considerations. They all intimated that they followed a constructivist orientation, but found it difficult to articulate a deep understanding of practice. In fact they displayed limited understanding of how in the early years teaching and learning can be realized through a pedagogy of play. A gap was revealed between teachers’ espoused theories and their theories-in-use which were predominately didactic in orientation. The study showed the impact of current constraints of the Education Department. Given these constraints the role of South African universities should be to deepen both theoretical and practical insights into early years pedagogy through appropriate teacher-focused interventions.Item From ideal into practice : an illuminative evaluation of a learnership in the insurance and investment sector.(2012-02-15) Sosznianin, TatianaThis study explores what happens as the ideals of a learnership, envisioned in the South African legislation, become real practice in a workplace within the financial services industry. Learnerships are at the centre stage for illuminating the processes of acquiring a vocational qualification, which combines education with work readiness. The constructivist philosophy to this research and its qualitative paradigm resonates well with the postmodernist thinking that knowledge has different purposes strongly linked to performance, demanding education that is value adding. It is through this postmodern lens that the broad theoretical framework for study is located. It encompasses theories of learning and workplace learning, such as Wenger’s (1998) perspectives on communities of practice and Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning circle. Mezirow’s (1981) transformative learning theory adds the dimension of dialogue. The method of illuminative evaluation is used to examine one event in order to explore its contextual insights. Qualitative inquiry has a fundamental people orientation and, for this reason, observation adds depth to the information gathering possibilities of interviews and document analysis. This report is enriched by narratives of people’s perspectives on events. This illuminative evaluation brought out rich and varied insights into the acquisition of knowledge, skills and work identity (values and attitudes), with some surprising and unexpected insights on success and failures. The workplace’s control of the learning process, while impacting extremely positively on the quality of the theoretical learning (which is interesting as education is not its core purpose), compromised in some respects the success of the end product of the learnership, the work readiness and employment possibilities of learners.Item Lesotho high school learners' understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry in relation to classroom experiences.(2012-02-09) Lematla, Lieketseng JustinahThis study investigates learners‟ understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry (NOSI) in relation to their classroom experiences. Using the constructs of nature of scientific inquiry; inquiry-based teaching and learning; and principles of scientific inquiry as theoretical lenses, the study empirically explored learners‟ (n = 120) understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry which were captured through a questionnaire called Learners‟ understanding of science and scientific inquiry (LUSSI) and interviews and their perceptions of classroom inquiry (their experiences of inquiry were elicited through a questionnaire called Principles of scientific inquiry- student (PSI-S) and interviews). The participants were one hundred and twenty learners, 60 from each of two schools in an Education District in Lesotho. Eight learners, four from each school participated in the interviews. At the centre, the investigation sought to understand whether there was any relationship between learners‟ perceptions of their experiences of scientific inquiry and their understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry. As a result, this study was guided by the following questions: what are learners‟ understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry? What are learners‟ perceptions of their experiences of scientific inquiry? Are learners‟ understandings of NOSI in any way related to their experiences of scientific inquiry? Typological approach was used to analyse the qualitative data and descriptive statistics for analysing the quantitative data. The results of this study suggest that learners hold less informed understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry and that learners are experiencing closed-inquiry in their science classroom. The results also show that other learners‟ experiences of scientific inquiry are not related to their understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry. It was recommended that teachers should engage learners in inquiry activities rather than always carrying out teacher-demonstrations. It is also recommended that further studies should be done in Lesotho to examine the relationship between learners‟ understandings of NOSI and their perceptions of their classroom experiences.Item A case study of South Africa's teachers' understandings of the nature of science and classroom instructional practices.(2011-05-27) Beauchamp, Nondyebo JuliaThis study investigated South Africa’s secondary school teachers’ understandings of the nature of science (NOS) in relation to their instructional practices. The participants were three Grade 10 Physical Science teachers conveniently selected from three schools in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Teacher understandings of the nature of science were elicited through semi-structured interviews. The core questions for the interviews were adapted from the Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire (VNOS) – Form C developed by Abd-El-Khalick, Lederman, Bell and Schwartz (2002). The nature of science tenets explored were: what is science?: the role and purpose of experiments in science: the difference between scientific theories and laws in science and how scientists settle scientific disputes. Teacher instructional practices were ascertained through semi-structured interviews and lesson observations. The results were analyzed using a combination of typological analysis and interpretive analysis. These results show that on the selected NOS tenets, the sampled teachers hold a mixture of naïve and sophisticated understandings. These understandings are, however, largely naïve. It was found that the teachers only teach about NOS implicitly. None of the teachers was found to explicitly teach about the NOS. It also came out that the teachers were experiencing difficulties in both interpreting and implementation of Learning Outcome 3 of South Africa’s new science curriculum. It is concluded that the interaction between teachers’ NOS understandings and their instructional practices occurs without the teachers being aware of it, i.e. unconsciously. Recommendations for teaching, curriculum implementation and future research are suggested.Item Factors that affect the use of constructivist approaches when teaching the new biology curriculum in Malawi(2011-02-25) Mdolo, Margaret MalizganiIn Malawi, the new Biology curriculum draws from constructivist approaches. The Biology teaching syllabus emphasises the use of students’ experiences as a resource and the use of active student involvement strategies when teaching the curriculum to enhance conceptual understanding. However, inspection reports show that students are less actively involved in the lessons and the teachers rarely draw from their students’ prior experiences to enhance conceptual understanding. In this study, I investigated some factors affecting four teachers’ use of constructivist approaches when teaching the new biology curriculum in Malawi. Information was collected on the four teachers’ understandings of active student involvement in lessons and students’ experiences, the extent to which the four teachers involved students and built on students’ experiences to enable comprehension of science concepts in the Biology lessons and the factors that promoted/ hindered the use of these practices. Data was collected through lesson observations and interviews with teachers using an observation guide and an interview schedule respectively. Four Biology teachers, two from community secondary schools and two from conventional secondary schools were observed and interviewed. I found that all the four teachers understood students’ experiences as prior knowledge from previous school learning. The teachers understood active student involvement in relation to the type of schools they were teaching. For the teachers in community schools, involving students meant engaging them in group discussion while to the teachers in conventional schools it meant students doing experiments / practical work. Their teaching focused on giving information and little was done to develop students’ metacognitive abilities. According to the four teachers, pressure to cover the syllabus before the national examinations; lack of text books and laboratory equipment; lack of motivation among students; students’ backgrounds; and inadequate students’ fluency in the English language are some of the factors that affect their implementation of the constructivist approaches. Based on the lessons I observed, the teachers’ knowledge of subject matter and teachers’ understandings of the constructivism concept also affect the use of constructivist approaches when teaching Biology in Malawi.Item Investigating Lesotho junior secondary science teachers' perceptions and use of laboratory work.(2010-11-09) Monare, Thulo JuliusThis study investigated Lesotho junior secondary science teachers’ perceptions and use of laboratory work in teaching. Teaching is described as engagement in a relationship between a person called a teacher and another person called a student with the purpose of facilitating the student’s acquisition of content which the student previously lacked (Fenstermacher, 1986). Using the constructs of scientific inquiry and inquiry-based instruction and constructivism as theoretical lenses the study empirically explored the Junior School Science teachers’ perceptions of the aims of laboratory work and how the teachers used laboratory work in their teaching. At the centre, the investigation sought to understand whether there was any relationship between teachers’ perceptions of the aims of laboratory work and their use of laboratory work. The sample of the study consisted of fifty science teachers (n=50) conveniently selected from 12 schools in the Butha-Buthe district of Lesotho. Data were collected through closed and open ended questionnaires (n=50), semi-structured interviews (n=5), and laboratory lesson observations (n=2). Data were analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistics and qualitatively using a combination of typological and interpretational analysis. The results show that as a group the sampled teachers held the view that the most important aim of laboratory work was to promote conceptual understanding. In their teaching, most of the sampled teachers use laboratory work to verify theory through largely verificationist, expository and non-inquiry laboratory instructional practices and strategies. The following barriers were reported by the teachers as limiting their use of inquiry oriented and student centered teaching strategies: limitations of resources; time constraints; large classes; pressure to complete the prescribed curriculum; safety issues; and preparations for external examinations. The results also suggest that the teachers’ seeing laboratory work as important for developing conceptual understanding is associated with their use of verificationistic teaching approaches. It is recommended that; Lesotho science curriculum be reviewed, and that teachers should participate in curriculum development to enhance successful implementation of inquiry instruction, professional development programmes be established, and the enactment of inquiry instruction be systematically monitored and evaluated. It is recommended that curriculum developers facilitate teachers’ transformation from expository to inquiry instruction.Item Evaluating the effectiveness of Harcombe's cognitive approach to literacy instruction in improving literacy learning in a South African university training setting.(2010-06-25T10:16:28Z) McMahon-Panther, GailAlong with various contextual factors, the method of literacy instruction is recognised as one of the main reasons for low levels of literacy learning both locally and internationally. Harcombe’s CATLI process is offered as an alternative literacy methodology, firstly since its constructivist, ecosystemic underpinnings endeavour to address as many contextual issues as is possible, and secondly, because the CATLI process attempts to address some of the gaps in other literacy instructional programmes. The current study aimed to evaluate the CATLI process as a viable alternative to traditional methods of literacy instruction. In addition, the study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of using the constructivist approach to train university students in the CATLI process. The sample comprised trainee learning support specialists and one parent per learner receiving the CATLI intervention at the community centre at a Johannesburg university in 2007. Quantitative and qualitative data obtained by means of questionnaires and extant records provided evidence that all learners showed improvement in literacy skills as well as general development, ascribing the effectiveness of the process to being underpinned soundly by social constructivism and associated theories. For the same reason, trainees considered their training sufficient.Item An investigation of learners' symbol sense and interpretation of letters in early algebraic learning(2009-07-06T12:25:20Z) Naidoo, Kona Sagaren KanakasabyResearch in early algebra is critical because a smooth transition from arithmetic to algebra will influence future algebra learning that is central to school mathematics. This study investigated learners’ interpretation of letters in different levels of generalised arithmetic activities. Thirty grade nine learners from one inner city school participated in this study. All learners engaged with seventeen paper and pencil tasks encompassing six different interpretations of letters and six learners were then interviewed. Analysis of the data showed that the overall performance of learners was very poor and most learners have not been successful in making the transition from arithmetic to algebra. Learner responses suggested a strong arithmetical influence and a poor understanding of algebraic letter and basic manipulative skills. Throughout the data a number of misconceptions surfaced which suggested that most learners in this sample were lacking ‘symbol sense’.