| 1. |
- Granklint Enochson, Pernilla, 1965-, et al.
(författare)
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Ideas about the human body among secondary students in South Africa
- 2015
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Ingår i: African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education. - Abingdon : Taylor & Francis. - 1028-8457 .- 1811-7295 .- 2469-7656. ; 19:2, s. 199-211
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper we focus on how South African students’ ideas about the human body are constituted in their descriptions of three different scenarios involving the pathway of a sandwich, a painkiller and a glass of water through the body. In particular, we have studied the way in which the students transferred ideas between the sandwich and the painkiller compared with the students' ability to explain the water pathway. The study surveyed 161 ninth-grade students in five different schools in South Africa. Data collection methods used were: drawings, written questions (open-ended items) and interviews with selected students. The questions emerged from the three scenarios—what happens in the body when you eat a sandwich, swallow a painkiller and drink a glass of water. We report that it is difficult for the students to transfer knowledge of the digestive system horizontally from the sandwich scenario to descriptions of the painkiller and water scenarios. The integration of three organ systems (digestive, circulatory and excretory) to describe the water scenario was even more difficult for the students than the horizontal transfer from the sandwich scenario. The students also showed a diversity of non-scientific descriptions, especially concerning the water scenario. The paper discusses why a large percentage of the students (∼50%) included non-scientific ideas in their decriptions of the water scenario.
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| 2. |
- Linder, Anne, et al.
(författare)
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Fostering Disciplinary Literacy? South African Physics Lecturers' Educational Responses to their Students' Lack of Representational Competence
- 2014
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Ingår i: African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1028-8457 .- 1811-7295 .- 2469-7656. ; 18:3, s. 242-252
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recently, the South African Institute of Physics undertook a major review of university physics education. The report highlighted the necessity for further transformation of the teaching of physics, particularly in relation to the teaching of under-prepared students. In this article we examine how physics lecturers in South Africa reported how they respond to the teaching challenges that they face in terms of representational competence. We argue that the goal of any undergraduate degree is the production of disciplinary literate graduates, where disciplinary literacy refers to the ability to competently deal with the various representational formats used within the discipline. For physics the development of disciplinary literacy involves competence in a wide range of representations, such as written and oral languages, diagrams, graphs, mathematics, apparatus and simulations. Our interest in this study was the way in which individual physics lecturers described how they deal with their students’ lack of representational competence. To this end, we interviewed 20 physics lecturers from five purposefully selected representative South African universities about their students’ lack of representational competence and the educational strategies they use for dealing with this problem. These interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed for potential patterns. Iterative, interpretive analysis resulted in the identification of six qualitatively different response strategies that South African physics lecturers indicate they invoke to deal with their students’ lack of representational competence. We suggest that an understanding of this range of possible response strategies will allow physics lecturers to better understand their own responses and those of their peers, and that this, in turn, may lead to changes in educational practice. Based on the differences in individual response strategies that we find, we further argue that inter- and intra-faculty discussions about undergraduate disciplinary literacy goals have the distinct potential for reforming South African undergraduate physics. Here, we suggest that the disciplinary literacy discussion matrix that we used to initiate dialogue in our interviews may also double as a useful starting point for such faculty discussions.
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| 3. |
- Ramdhany, Viren, et al.
(författare)
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Dissonance and Continuity in the Mathematical Education and Training Experiences of Pre-service Secondary Mathematics Teachers
- 2018
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Ingår i: African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1028-8457 .- 1811-7295 .- 2469-7656. ; 22:2, s. 186-195
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The education and professional development of pre-service mathematics teachers occur across different contexts. Key contexts of mathematics learning and learning to teach are school, university undergraduate mathematics and mathematics teaching-related learning in teacher education courses. International literature suggests that each of these contexts legitimises different views of mathematics teaching and learning. For pre-service teachers traversing these contexts, moves between sites can be experienced in more continuous or more dissonant ways. The disjunctures associated with dissonant experiences lead to openings for value judgments related to the distinctions that are drawn, opening possibilities for a wider range of pedagogic decisions. In this paper, we explore, through interviews with four pre-service teachers in one post-graduate certificate of education (PGCE) course, perceptions of continuity and dissonance across sites related to mathematics and mathematics education, and teaching and learning. Our findings point largely to experiences of continuity between the high school and undergraduate contexts, with the PGCE course recognised as different from these contexts.
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| 4. |
- Eriksson, Moa, et al.
(författare)
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The Variation of University Physics Students' Experience of Plus and Minus Signs in 1D Vector-kinematics Revisited
- 2022
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Ingår i: African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 1811-7295 .- 2469-7656. ; 26:1, s. 63-76
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article revisits and expands upon a previous phenomenographic study characterising the qualitatively different ways in which South African undergraduate physics students may experience the use of +/- signs in one-dimensional kinematics (1DK). We find the original categorisation as applicable for interpreting Swedish university-level students' responses to 1DK questions. However, by way of a typology of potential learning outcomes associated with +/- signs in 1DK, our review of the topic reveals that the original study's treatment misses the implications of +/- signs related to time rate of change and graphical shape. We also add to the description of students' experience of +/- signs in 1DK by incorporating ideas from the Variation Theory of Learning and by focusing on some of the aspects of +/- signs in 1DK that were underemphasized in the original study. Our analysis thus provides a template for physics educators to support students' conceptual understanding of sign conventions in vector kinematics.
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| 5. |
- Graven, Mellony, et al.
(författare)
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SAARMSTE's role in building and connecting Early Grade Mathematics research : A review of SAARMSTE Proceedings 2003-2022
- 2023
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Ingår i: African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1811-7295 .- 2469-7656. ; 27:3, s. 255-272
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper focuses on the Southern African Association for Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education's (SAARMSTE's) role as a platform supporting research dissemination and connecting researchers in early grades mathematics (EGM) in the Southern African region. A review of the Long Papers in SAARMSTE over the last 20 years supports the finding of the other review papers in this Special Issue: that there has been substantial growth of attention to EGM since 2013. However, two distinctions are marked when looking at conference papers rather than journal papers. Firstly, there is a particularly large expansion of work in the last 5 years, with a broadening base of participation in this work. Second, looking across all the formats of conference presentations indicates SAARMSTE's role in supporting and building EGM as a key focus of research attention, and bringing together regional and international groups with interests in this area. Given that conference proceedings usually offer a broader picture of emerging interests than journal papers, we reflect on the range of foci of attention within EGM in the SAARMSTE Proceedings, and trends within this. These trends also help us to point to areas that are likely to be of key interest in the next decade.
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| 6. |
- Otterup, Tore, 1947
(författare)
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Writing in Science Classrooms: Some Case Studies in South African and Swedish Second-language Classrooms.
- 2013
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Ingår i: African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education. - 1028-8457. ; 17:1-2, s. 74-82
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Problems of poor performance in science and mathematics education have been related to language deficiencies, including writing skills. Writing to learn science is an important skill but is not easy to acquire, especially when children learn in a second language. In order to investigate possibilities for developing writing in South African and Swedish science classrooms a case study design was employed using classroom observations, teacher interviews and samples of learners work produced in science second language classrooms in both countries over a period of six months. In all cases the learners were not assisted by their teachers to produce written text. Four major themes were derived from the data which have implications in terms of understanding the current situation and providing a point of departure for assisting teachers and children to develop the skill of writing to learn science, an implicit aim of the curricula in both countries.
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| 7. |
- Tossavainen, Timo, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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Some South African mathematics teachers' concept images of the equation concept
- 2012
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Ingår i: African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education. - : Electronic Publishing. - 1811-7295. ; 16:3, s. 376-389
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper, we examine the concept definitions a group of South African upper secondary school mathematics teachers (N = 47) express and how their understanding of the truth value, the role of variable and the syntax of expression appear in the participants' explanations for their assessment of examples and non-examples of equations. We use content analysis and standard quantitative methods. The data consists of the participants' answers to a questionnaire reflecting both teachers' concept definitions of equation and their skills in classifying examples and non-examples of equation. Altogether 27 participants were able to give a correct definition of the equation concept. Ten participants' definition was slightly ambiguous yet meaningful and ten participants failed in this task. In general, the participants had very high confidence in the sufficiency of their skills in classifying examples and non-examples of equations. Nevertheless, on average, they only succeeded in correctly identifying an equation in 13 of 24 items, with most of the equations being quite simple and none beyond the upper secondary school level. The findings of this study also reveal a common and dominant conception that equations should always possess the truth value 'true' although truth value is discussed only in one participant's concept definition. Secondly, the participants are quite careless about the syntax and the involved binary relation in particular despite the fact that the correct form of equations and the equality relation were regularly mentioned in their concept definitions of equation. Finally, some participants seem to think that there is only one equation related to each algebraic problem.
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