"Conversations about mathematics education in this country pop up frequently in the media - and I have yet to come across anyone who is happy with the way things are in the learning of maths among the nation"s children.
Many try to find out what goes wrong by conducting research. South Africa has about 150 researchers in mathematics education, and there are a number of special mathematics chairs of research and development at various universities. Funding foundations are generally very keen to contribute to research, especially if it is linked to development programmes and if some impact can be measured."
"Mathematics and science at school are vital to higher education, skilled jobs, and the national economy. For this reason, CDE has taken a sustained interest in the performance of the South African schooling system in these subjects. This paper summarises the results of four statistical analyses of Senior Certificate and National Senior Certificate results since 1998. Conducted by Professor Charles Simkins, they provide important new insights into the mathematics and science performance of South African schools, and identify key policy issues arising from the research."
"although we study mathematics to solve problems, it is not always obvious that we can also use problems to teach mathematics. I illustrated how well-chosen problems can provoke a child to perform mathematical procedures without necessarily knowing the mathematical term associated with the procedure.
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"maths anxiety" is not so much an anxiety or fear of the subject itself but rather a reaction to the sense of powerlessness children experience when they think about "doing mathematics".
The aim of this study was thus to investigate mathematical literacy in relation to learners' motivations for the contexts they would prefer to deal with in mathematical literacy. The emphasis of the study is to concentrate on learner's written motivations for mathematical contexts. Data were collected using a questionnaire that deals with contexts for mathematics.
What is mathematical literacy? To answer this question we must look at the meaning of literacy in general. In the narrowest sense, literacy refers to the ability to read, write, speak, and use language
In the largest study of its kind, girls measured up to boys in every grade, from second through 11th. The research was released Thursday in the journal Science.