Lesotho Grade R teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching numeracy

South African Journal of Childhood Education

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Lesotho Grade R teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching numeracy
 
Creator Setoromo, Mamasiphole Bansilal, Sarah James, Angela
 
Subject education Mathematical Knowledge for teaching; numeracy; Grade R; mathematics mathematics education
Description Background: It is important that mathematics teachers have a robust knowledge of the mathematics they teach. They need more than just knowledge of the content because they are expected to facilitate understanding of the content with their learners. This study focused on the knowledge of practising Grade R teachers from Lesotho.Aim: The purpose of this exploratory study was to explore practising Grade R teachers’ mathematical knowledge for the teaching of numeracy.Setting: The study was conducted with 48 practising Grade R teachers while they were enrolled in an in-service programme at a College of Education in Lesotho.Methods: Data was generated through the use of questionnaires. The questionnaire included items focusing on the four domains of knowledge, namely common content knowledge, special content knowledge, knowledge of content and students, and knowledge of content and teaching.Results: The findings revealed that some teachers were unable to carry out division problems accurately and many struggled to explain the possible modification of a teaching plan. Only 27% of the group were able to explain that there were levels of understanding numeracy. With respect to ordering a sequence of three topics, only 15% of the teachers produced a reasonable sequence.Conclusion: These teachers’ difficulties raise concerns about the effectiveness of their teaching of numeracy. Despite the Lesotho government’s commitment to improving the learning of mathematics at the Grade R level, much more work is required to be conducted with teachers so that their mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) numeracy can be improved.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor W.k Kellogg Foundation, Southern Africa
Date 2018-11-28
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — interpretative
Format text/html application/epub+zip application/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajce.v8i2.585
 
Source South African Journal of Childhood Education; Vol 8, No 2 (2018); 9 pages 2223-7682 2223-7674
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/585/890 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/585/889 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/585/891 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/585/878
 
Coverage — — adults
Rights Copyright (c) 2018 Mamasiphole Setoromo, Sarah Bansilal, Angela James https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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