Investigating a mathematics recovery program for assessment and intervention with groups of Grade 4 learners
- Authors: Wasserman, Anelia
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Primary) , Mathematics -- Evaluation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:2065 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020340
- Description: This study reports on the findings of my research, which was based on an intervention focused on recovery of early arithmetic strategies with one Grade 4 class of learners in a township school in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. Learners came from poor socio-economic backgrounds and initial evaluations showed that the majority of learners still relied on concrete methods, like tally counting, to perform addition and subtraction calculations even with numbers less than 10. This is not uncommon in the South African context especially with learners in low Socio-economic Status (SES) schools. The results of numerous assessments including the Department of Education’s Annual National Assessments point to a crisis in primary mathematics education where intermediate phase learners are generally operating several grade levels below the grade they are in. A large drop in mathematics performance is seen in the ANA results in grade 4 learners (the first grade of the transition from foundation phase to intermediate phase). Within this context, and my background in learning support for students, my research aimed to understand the possibilities and constraints of the implementation of a recovery program adapted from the widely implemented work of Wright et al. (2006, 2012). The primary adaptation made to the MR program involved administering the assessments and intervention with groups of (rather than individual) learners. Within the context of the many low SES under-resourced schools in SA, individualised interview based assessments and recovery is not seen as a possible remediation strategy. Drawing on a socio- constructivist perspective, my study used action research with one class of 23 learners and found that adaptation of the MR program for a group, based on eight recovery sessions, was useful for enabling some progress for all learners in terms of their early arithmetic strategies and conceptual place value. Although the need for a longer recovery period is acknowledged, the adapted program enabled some progress in levels and stages of conceptual knowledge (as conceptualized by Wright et al.’s (2006) Learning Framework in Number) for these two domains. The study concludes with some reflections and recommendations for the future.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Wasserman, Anelia
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Primary) , Mathematics -- Evaluation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:2065 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020340
- Description: This study reports on the findings of my research, which was based on an intervention focused on recovery of early arithmetic strategies with one Grade 4 class of learners in a township school in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. Learners came from poor socio-economic backgrounds and initial evaluations showed that the majority of learners still relied on concrete methods, like tally counting, to perform addition and subtraction calculations even with numbers less than 10. This is not uncommon in the South African context especially with learners in low Socio-economic Status (SES) schools. The results of numerous assessments including the Department of Education’s Annual National Assessments point to a crisis in primary mathematics education where intermediate phase learners are generally operating several grade levels below the grade they are in. A large drop in mathematics performance is seen in the ANA results in grade 4 learners (the first grade of the transition from foundation phase to intermediate phase). Within this context, and my background in learning support for students, my research aimed to understand the possibilities and constraints of the implementation of a recovery program adapted from the widely implemented work of Wright et al. (2006, 2012). The primary adaptation made to the MR program involved administering the assessments and intervention with groups of (rather than individual) learners. Within the context of the many low SES under-resourced schools in SA, individualised interview based assessments and recovery is not seen as a possible remediation strategy. Drawing on a socio- constructivist perspective, my study used action research with one class of 23 learners and found that adaptation of the MR program for a group, based on eight recovery sessions, was useful for enabling some progress for all learners in terms of their early arithmetic strategies and conceptual place value. Although the need for a longer recovery period is acknowledged, the adapted program enabled some progress in levels and stages of conceptual knowledge (as conceptualized by Wright et al.’s (2006) Learning Framework in Number) for these two domains. The study concludes with some reflections and recommendations for the future.
- Full Text:
Investigating the nature of the linguistic challenges of the Department of Basic Education (DBE) 2013 Grade 4 Mathematics ANAs and learners’ and teachers’ experience of them.
- Authors: Sibanda, Lucy
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2079 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1021312
- Description: The underperformance of South African learners in literacy and numeracy is a source of grave concern, especially at the transition from Grade 3 to Grade 4. The challenge that complicates this shift is to some extent linguistic, since at Grade 4 in South Africa the majority of learners begin learning in English, which is an additional language for most. The study adopts a sociocultural view of language and learning. Vygotsky’s influential theoretical work on language and learning, in which language is considered central to learning and learning is a social process embedded in sociocultural settings, informs the study. The introduction of the Annual National Assessments (ANAs) across primary and secondary grades in South Africa in mathematics and literacy in 2011 provides the context for this research. It is against this background that the present study aimed, through a case study approach of three Grade 4 classes of English additional language (EAL) learners, to achieve four things, namely: to investigate the linguistic challenges of the 2013 Grade 4 mathematics ANAs; to analyse the learners’ written responses to the 2013 mathematics ANA items; to explore the 2013 Grade 4 learners’ difficulties and experiences of the 2013 mathematics ANAs, and to investigate the Grade 4 mathematics teachers’ perspectives of the language of the ANAs. In order to achieve these aims, the data was collected in four phases. The first phase of the study addressed the nature of the linguistic challenges of the Department of Basic Education Grade 4 mathematics ANAs. Data collection occurred in two parts: 1) Comparing Grade 4 ANAs to exemplars provided and 2) Analysing the language of the 2013 mathematics ANAs. This was done through content analysis and Shaftel et al.’s (2006) linguistic complexity checklist. Findings for part 1 of the study revealed that there were several inconsistencies in the questioning format and language used in the ANAs and in the exemplars. Findings of the content analysis done on the 2013 mathematics ANA test items using Shaftel et al.’s (2006) linguistic complexity checklist and Vale’s (2013) Linguistic Complexity Index formula point to many linguistic complexities in several test items, particularly in relation to recurrent use of: 7 or more letter words, homophones, prepositional phrases and specific mathematics vocabulary across the majority of questions. In phase 2, the analysis of 106 learners’ written responses for the 2013 mathematics ANA questions revealed that for many of the questions the language used was unfamiliar for Grade 4 learners using English as an additional language. This was aggravated by the inclusion in the ANAs of linguistic forms learners would not have encountered in their workbooks or exemplars intended to prepare the learners for the assessments. Therefore, linguistic complexity of items was a key contributing factor to learners’ poor performance in the test. In the third phase, the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the 26 learners’ interviews revealed that during the task-based interviews, learners experienced difficulties in the following skills: reading, comprehension, transformation, process and encoding. The greatest difficulties were experienced in comprehension and in reading, especially in the two classes where the learners were less proficient in the English language. The fourth phase, in which two Grade 4 mathematics teachers’ perceptions of the linguistic demands of the Grade 4 mathematics ANAs were presented and analysed, the teachers’ perceptions indicated that the mathematical language was mostly too difficult for the Grade 4 learners. Teachers also were of the opinion that learners’ reading skills were poor and they struggled to comprehend what they read. A dilemma regarding whether teachers should assist learners during the ANAs, satisfying the local needs for mediating the language or whether they should comply with the ANA policy which states that they may not assist learners was expressed by one of the teachers. A range of language challenges that teachers managed with various strategies were raised. These included one teacher’s use of code-switching during the teaching of mathematics. The study concludes with implications and recommendations. These include that test designers should minimise the language complexity of test items, especially in the early transition grades of learning in English. Research should be conducted on possibilities for allowing teachers to provide linguistic mediation to ANA questions in these transition years of learners learning in English.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Sibanda, Lucy
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2079 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1021312
- Description: The underperformance of South African learners in literacy and numeracy is a source of grave concern, especially at the transition from Grade 3 to Grade 4. The challenge that complicates this shift is to some extent linguistic, since at Grade 4 in South Africa the majority of learners begin learning in English, which is an additional language for most. The study adopts a sociocultural view of language and learning. Vygotsky’s influential theoretical work on language and learning, in which language is considered central to learning and learning is a social process embedded in sociocultural settings, informs the study. The introduction of the Annual National Assessments (ANAs) across primary and secondary grades in South Africa in mathematics and literacy in 2011 provides the context for this research. It is against this background that the present study aimed, through a case study approach of three Grade 4 classes of English additional language (EAL) learners, to achieve four things, namely: to investigate the linguistic challenges of the 2013 Grade 4 mathematics ANAs; to analyse the learners’ written responses to the 2013 mathematics ANA items; to explore the 2013 Grade 4 learners’ difficulties and experiences of the 2013 mathematics ANAs, and to investigate the Grade 4 mathematics teachers’ perspectives of the language of the ANAs. In order to achieve these aims, the data was collected in four phases. The first phase of the study addressed the nature of the linguistic challenges of the Department of Basic Education Grade 4 mathematics ANAs. Data collection occurred in two parts: 1) Comparing Grade 4 ANAs to exemplars provided and 2) Analysing the language of the 2013 mathematics ANAs. This was done through content analysis and Shaftel et al.’s (2006) linguistic complexity checklist. Findings for part 1 of the study revealed that there were several inconsistencies in the questioning format and language used in the ANAs and in the exemplars. Findings of the content analysis done on the 2013 mathematics ANA test items using Shaftel et al.’s (2006) linguistic complexity checklist and Vale’s (2013) Linguistic Complexity Index formula point to many linguistic complexities in several test items, particularly in relation to recurrent use of: 7 or more letter words, homophones, prepositional phrases and specific mathematics vocabulary across the majority of questions. In phase 2, the analysis of 106 learners’ written responses for the 2013 mathematics ANA questions revealed that for many of the questions the language used was unfamiliar for Grade 4 learners using English as an additional language. This was aggravated by the inclusion in the ANAs of linguistic forms learners would not have encountered in their workbooks or exemplars intended to prepare the learners for the assessments. Therefore, linguistic complexity of items was a key contributing factor to learners’ poor performance in the test. In the third phase, the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the 26 learners’ interviews revealed that during the task-based interviews, learners experienced difficulties in the following skills: reading, comprehension, transformation, process and encoding. The greatest difficulties were experienced in comprehension and in reading, especially in the two classes where the learners were less proficient in the English language. The fourth phase, in which two Grade 4 mathematics teachers’ perceptions of the linguistic demands of the Grade 4 mathematics ANAs were presented and analysed, the teachers’ perceptions indicated that the mathematical language was mostly too difficult for the Grade 4 learners. Teachers also were of the opinion that learners’ reading skills were poor and they struggled to comprehend what they read. A dilemma regarding whether teachers should assist learners during the ANAs, satisfying the local needs for mediating the language or whether they should comply with the ANA policy which states that they may not assist learners was expressed by one of the teachers. A range of language challenges that teachers managed with various strategies were raised. These included one teacher’s use of code-switching during the teaching of mathematics. The study concludes with implications and recommendations. These include that test designers should minimise the language complexity of test items, especially in the early transition grades of learning in English. Research should be conducted on possibilities for allowing teachers to provide linguistic mediation to ANA questions in these transition years of learners learning in English.
- Full Text:
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