Language: a cultural capital for conceptualizing mathematics knowledge
SOURCE: International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2012
TITLE AUTHOR(S): N.Feza-Piyose
KEYWORDS: ACHIEVEMENT, EDUCATION, MATHEMATICS TEACHING, MULTILINGUALISM, SELF-ESTEEM
DEPARTMENT: Equitable Education and Economies (IED)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 7380
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/3298
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/3298
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2012
TITLE AUTHOR(S): N.Feza-Piyose
KEYWORDS: ACHIEVEMENT, EDUCATION, MATHEMATICS TEACHING, MULTILINGUALISM, SELF-ESTEEM
DEPARTMENT: Equitable Education and Economies (IED)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 7380
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/3298
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/3298
If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.
Abstract
Mathematics education in South Africa is in crisis. Students continue to perform at a lower level compared to other nations including those with low GPD compared to them. Two factors have been highlighted in research that impedes mathematics learning: teacher content knowledge and irrelevant teaching strategies. This study contributes to this literature by investigating five African (from a former White school) fifth grade students' learning of length measurement with the aim of eliciting the students' thinking levels by using a length learning trajectory. Clinical interviews and teaching experiments were employed for a comprehensive description of these students' processes. The findings reveal that students' mother tongue is a psychological tool that enriches their mathematics learning process, learning trajectory assisted in analysing students developmental processes with language and poor number development impeded abstraction in learning of length measurement concepts.-
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