The interface between early numeracy, language and learning environments: Pedagogical implications

South African Journal of Childhood Education

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The interface between early numeracy, language and learning environments: Pedagogical implications
 
Creator Bezuidenhout, Hanrie S.
 
Subject Early childhood development; early childhood education; teacher education early numeracy; language proficiency; language for mathematics; multilingual setting; executive functions; learning environment; foundation phase pedagogy
Description Background: In South Africa, many children learn mathematics in English, which is often not a home language. This type of linguistic situation intersects with their learning environments, their numeracy attainment and their executive functions. Ultimately, these aspects collectively contribute to children’s numeracy attainment in Grade 1.Aim: To describe how teachers draw on their views of the intersection of (1) pre-school numeracy competence, (2) language for mathematics and (3) the home and classroom environment, and (4) executive functions as cognitive filter for the teaching of mathematics, specifically of number concepts.Setting: A well-resourced school in a township area of urban Johannesburg, where Grade 1 children are taught in English, although their home language and Grade R language of instruction is isiZulu or Sesotho.Methods: Qualitative content analysis and discourse analysis were used to analyse interview data of four purposefully selected teachers.Results: Teachers’ discourse showed that they were able to reflect on their teaching and to provide examples of how children’s language, the environment and executive functions could feature in their early numeracy development. Yet, the teachers did not link theoretical ideas to their personal pedagogical theories.Conclusion: Teachers need robust theoretical models to continuously develop personal pedagogical theories of cognitive development to integrate theoretical knowledge with their teaching practices.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor National Research Foundation (NFR) Prof E. Henning (University of Johannesburg, Faculty of Education, CEPR)
Date 2020-12-14
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Qualitative content- and discourse analysis were used to analyse interview data of four purposefully selected teachers.
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajce.v10i1.923
 
Source South African Journal of Childhood Education; Vol 10, No 1 (2020); 10 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/923/1679 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/923/1678 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/923/1680 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/923/1677
 
Coverage A well-resourced school in a township area of urban Johannesburg Grade R and grade 1 Two grade R teachers and two grade 1 teachers
Rights Copyright (c) 2020 Hanrie S. Bezuidenhout https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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