The Free State Department of Education, in collaboration with VVOB, hosted its first math summit on 3 and 4 November 2014 in Welkom, Lejweleputswa district. Many stakeholders, such as representatives of unions, math organisations and higher education institutions, and 175 teachers throughout Lejweleputswa district came together to share ideas on teaching Mathematics to learners from grades R to 6.
Target
“The summit is aimed at producing a model for teaching Mathematics that is unique to South African teachers and learners, according to their needs and capabilities”, said MEC for Education Tate Makgoe. “The summit aims at empowering teachers and expanding their knowledge in teaching Mathematics and breaking any misconceptions that they have about teaching certain math topics.”
The summit’s programme included plenary presentations and work in commissions. Hand-outs of the presentations can be dowloaded below.
Presentations
During a very interactive presentation of Karin Van Dommelen and Sonia Backx, the audience reflected on the building blocks for mathematical understanding. The iceberg metaphor, introduced during this presentation, was soon to be used by all of the participants. “Teaching mathematics should start in the reality of life”, said Karin and Sonia, who are pedagogical advisors of VSKO, the umbrella organisation for Catholic primary schools in Flanders, Belgium.
Mrs Maboya, Chief Director: Curriculum, shared her research on the use of manipulatives in math education. “It is important to use manipulatives, but educators should also make sure that the abstract concept is extracted from the manipulatives.” She urged support programmes to assist with collaborative work in maths, mathematical discussions in the classroom, mathematical reasoning and conceptual understanding. She also stressed that low-cost, non-commercial manipulatives are often more successful than commercial ones.
Mrs Leonie Coetzee, Principal at Sunlaws Pre-Primary School, shared practical examples of doing mathematics with pre-school and grade R learners. “I create opportunities for learners to explore and experience, without using structured approaches such as worksheets.”
Mr Mahloko, HOD: mathematics and NST Hlaboloha, showed the audience how difficult concepts such as ratios can be taught. He analysed some of the common misconceptions seen with learners and introduced some remedial actions. Surely, rations become easy to understand when talking about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!
Commissions
After the presentations, participants worked in four commissions: two for Intermediate (IP) and two for Foundation Phase (FP). Each of the commissions were facilitated and guided by subject advisors and lead teachers. The commissions focused on the teaching of Counting (FP), Measurement (FP), Decimal numbers (IP) and Fractions (IP). In smaller groups they discussed the use of manipulatives, the prevention of misconceptions and possible ways of assessment. “I was teaching misconceptions!”, a teacher exclaimed when realising the effect her teaching had on the learners. Other teachers were so excited about what they had learnt that they couldn’t wait to start implementing. The summit ended with presentations of lessons learnt by all commissions.
Finding solutions and practises
International and national research such as Trends in Mathematics and Science Instruction (TIMMS) and the Annual National Assessment (ANA) show that Mathematics teaching in South Africa is in serious distress, but many ingredients for improvement are available in the country. A summit like this assists in finding solutions and practises that are suitable for the South African context.
The work done during the summit will be added to the work already done by subject advisors and lead teachers in preparation of the summit. It will lead to the development of a Free State Math Guideline (Model) which will be the basis for further teacher development in 2015.
