Background: Mathematics education is a significant issue in the South African context. Learners' achievement levels are markedly low as suggested by both national and international studies. The teaching and learning of fractions in particular have been identified as challenging. Aim: The aim of this article is to share some of the outcomes derived…

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to present severe challenges to the education sector more than 2 years after the first case was detected. We explore the strategies South African teachers used to support continued mathematics learning at home during the COVID-19 pandemic across different stages of the response to it and across different contexts.…

Background: Learners from predominantly less priviledged South African schools encounter English as a language of teaching and learning for the first time in Grade 4. The transition from the use of home language to second language, namely English first additional language, is complexly related to the learners' inability to read text meaningfully.…

This article reports on the outcome of utilising a multilingual strategy that promotes translanguaging to support primary grade learners and the enablers and constraints of the implementation of such strategies. Purposive sampling was used to select two schools. Grade 5 and 6 learners (N = 162) and their teachers (N = 3) participated in the study.…

This paper emerges from a broader study that investigated the strategies employed by teachers to continue mathematics teaching and learning during South Africa's COVID-19 lockdowns and through subsequent phased and partial re-opening of schools. In this paper, we focus on teacher views of the role of parents in these efforts gathered through two…

In this paper, we discuss the results of a case study about the teaching strategies used by three primary school educators to decode Grade 4 science terminology. In South Africa, the study of science is formally introduced to learners in Grade 4. Additionally, Grade 4 is the year when learners transition from being taught in their native languages…

The teaching of second language that is also a language of teaching and learning of other subjects, has to be meticulous. Considerate attention is utmost where this teaching occurs in under-resourced learning environments where learners encounter the second language for the first time. In instances where the teaching was inadequate, as in the…

Socially inclusive strategies encourage empowering, progressive and sustainable responses to social challenges and needs. These strategies are made possible through inclusion and equitable consideration of diverse contributions of those affected by the problems, and who feel obliged to find solutions to the problems. In this paper, the principles…

Language is a contextual factor of an education system as it determines the Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT). In order to provide for diversity in South Africa, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, makes provision for 11 official languages and the Language in Education Policy (LiEP) promotes respect for not only these…

Ticks and crosses (TCs) are a common aspect of teachers' classroom practice in relation to assessment in many learning areas including mathematics. Putting TCs in learners' written work is a strategy of feedback. Even though these TCs are frequently used in different types of mathematics assessments, there is limited research in relation to what…

The research presented in this article reports on the results of a case study examining the classroom practice of one early career Grade 4 teacher (Nox, pseudonym) as she teaches equivalent fractions. The goal was to explore the ways and extent to which her instruction reflected a dialogical teaching approach, defined as a pedagogical approach…

Being aware of our thinking as we perform learning tasks and then using this knowledge to actively self-regulate what we are doing, is commonly known as metacognition. This study investigated the influence of a story-based intervention on the development of metacognition among Intermediate Phase learners engaged in content area learning. Two…

Previous research suggests that enhanced cognitive and metacognitive skills are achieved when translanguaging techniques are applied in a multilingual classroom. This paper presents findings on the effects of translanguaging techniques on teaching grade 4 learners how to apply relevant background knowledge when drawing inferences during reading.…

Background: Making predictions on how events might unfold when reading a text improves comprehension. Research on reading and making predictions tends to focus predominantly on the effects of making predictions as a reading strategy in monolingual contexts. So far, there is a paucity of research on the effects of reading development strategies in…

Prevalent approaches to classroom languaging and bilingual education interpret the practices of multilingual groups of people through a monolingual lens that obscures the fluid languaging and semiotic practices of contemporary communities who engage in dynamic semiotic and linguistic practices, rather than 'add' one language to another in the form…