- Title
- Teachers’ use of authentic tasks through mathematics trails in a mobile learning environment to facilitate conceptual teaching
- Creator
- Matengu, Given Kahale
- ThesisAdvisor
- Schäfer, M.
- Subject
- Uncatalogued
- Date
- 2024-10-11
- Type
- Academic theses
- Type
- Doctoral theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/466429
- Identifier
- vital:76727
- Identifier
- DOI https://doi.org/10.21504/10962/466429
- Description
- The teaching and learning of mathematics in Namibia is confronted by various forms of challenges that require continuous search for effective pedagogical strategies and approaches to enhance mathematical understanding. Some of the ways include using real and authentic outdoor activities and technological tools, such as smartphones, for teaching and learning purposes. The need to use authentic and realistic tasks in outdoor settings in the teaching of mathematics has strong support from the literature. Moreover, many recent reforms in education challenge teachers across all subjects to use modern and up-to-date technologies to complement and support existing approaches to teaching. Smartphones, in particular, offer new opportunities in the evolution of technology-enhanced learning by allowing teaching and learning to occur in authentic and realistic contexts that extend to real-life environments. This qualitative case study proposes a practical framework that can facilitate mathematical understanding in teaching through the implementation of authentic and realistic outdoor tasks by using the Math City Map (MCM) project on a smartphone. The study aims to analyse and understand how mathematics teachers can create and implement authentic and realistic tasks in an outdoor mathematics trail to facilitate the conceptual teaching of area, volume, ratio and proportion topics, within the context of the Realistic Mathematics Education theory (RME). The study is framed within the RME theory and the iPAC (personalisation, authenticity, collaboration) mobile pedagogical framework. The research process is underpinned by an interpretivist paradigm. Data was collected from eight selected teachers through observations and interviews and analysed using frameworks derived from the RME and iPAC mobile pedagogical theories and the emergence of common themes. The findings suggest that the integration of smartphones and mathematics trails have pedagogical benefits in mathematics teaching and can facilitate the use of outdoor tasks that are connected to learners’ realities. The study argues that while MCM mathematics trail tasks can be difficult to create, it was worthwhile for teachers using them to conceptually teach the selected topics. It is therefore hoped that the findings of this study contribute towards the use of outdoor mathematics trails and smartphones in the teaching of mathematics.
- Description
- Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Secondary and Post-School Education, 2024
- Format
- computer, online resource, application/pdf, 1 online resource (369 pages), pdf
- Publisher
- Rhodes University, Faculty of Education, Secondary and Post-School Education
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Matengu, Given Kahale
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike" License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details | SOURCE1 | MATENGU-PHD-TR24-262.pdf | 4 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |