This article reports on using open-response questions to reveal the level of, and change in, conceptual understanding of a small sample of Grade 11 learners of trigonometry in a South African high school. The investigation used learner response sheets in a regular classroom with the teacher as researcher. Combining the idea of concept image and…

Students' graph comprehension may be affected by the background of the students who are the readers or interpreters of the graph, their knowledge of the context in which the graph is set, and the inferential processes required by the graph operation. This research study investigated these aspects of graph comprehension for 152 first year…

Although the general development of mathematical abilities in primary school has been the focus of many researchers, the development of place value understanding has rarely been investigated to date. This is possibly due to the lack of conceptual approaches and empirical studies related to this topic. To fill this gap, a theory-driven and…

This article looks at the development of mathematisation in a primary school mathematics teacher's classroom. The teacher was a volunteer in a professional development programme that promoted didactisation principles for mathematics teacher development. At the heart of didactisation lies the principle of mathematisation. Mathematisation as a…

The underperformance of South African learners in literacy and numeracy is a cause of concern, especially at the transition from Grade 3 to Grade 4. At Grade 4 in South Africa, the majority of learners begin learning in English, which to them is an additional language posing transition challenges of a linguistic nature. The sustained poor…

Literature suggests that drawing has an important role in the development of learning and thinking skills and the communication of ideas. However, the role and use of drawing by young learners within the process of designing is poorly understood. Working with 22 Grade 3 learners from a well-resourced school in KwaZulu-Natal, this study sought to…

This article aims to investigate how science teachers engaged with the macroscopic, sub-microscopic and symbolic levels of representations in their Chemistry teaching. Data were collected in Limpopo province in South Africa from 15 "lead" teachers and this paper reports on five lessons presented by the teachers during professional…

This article reports a review of research in mathematics education in South Africa published in local and international journals in the period 2007-2015. The purpose of the review was to describe the landscape of mathematics education research in the country over the past (almost) decade. Findings indicate that the mathematics education research…

Learners' attitude to learning science plays a vitally important role with respect to career choices. This study reflects on the nature of the learners' attitude towards science and the effect of gender. A total of 547 Grade 7 learners from an urban district of Gauteng Province (South Africa) were administered a questionnaire to probe their…

Black women scientists are living in an important time in South Africa as the socio-political landscape is changing rapidly, effecting changes in many dimensions of identification, particularly "race", gender and class. This paper draws data from in-depth interviews with a cohort (n = 10) of Science scholarship students to explore…

In this article I report a study into the effectiveness of a 6 week intervention aimed at promoting learning of electricity concepts by 91 Grade 8 and 9 township learners. Each week I taught these learners for an hour and they engaged with educational software for another hour. Analogy usage and predict-explain-observe-explain pedagogy were…

Technology education in South Africa provides learners with the opportunity to, inter alia, solve problems by applying creative skills using authentic contexts that are embedded in real-life situations. Effective lesson planning is rather imperative in exploiting this opportunity. The design process is considered to be the backbone of teaching…

Professional learning communities as a form of teacher development have been in existence internationally for some time now and more recently in South Africa. Although strong claims have been made for their influence on teacher practices, very few research studies have investigated these claims. This paper presents a case study that connects…

Current practices in the South African secondary school subject Mathematical Literacy afford a limiting education experience for thousands of learners, the majority of whom are black and located in poor socio-economic environments: learners are confronted with pseudo-realistic contexts and engage only elementary mathematical contents. The…

One of the objectives of the South African science curriculum is to provide equal access to science for students from all backgrounds. However, this goal remains elusive as many students, particularly those from low socio-economic backgrounds, continue to perform poorly in science. One of the reasons for the persistent differential achievement in…