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The Statistics Anxiety Rating Scale and the Attitudes Toward Statistics questionnaire were administered to 226 university of technology students. The former scale measures anxiety about learning statistics in terms of Worth of Statistics, Interpretation Anxiety, Test and Class Anxiety, Computational Self-concept, Fear of Asking for Help, and Fear of Statistics Teachers. The latter measures attitudes toward use of statistics and statistics course for which a student was registered. These African students were enrolled in Taxation, Marketing, or Accounting. Participants took a required course in statistics intended to improve statistical skills. There were 150 women and 57 men, chosen because they had no previous mathematics learning. Students' ages ranged between 16 and 26 years (M = 20.1, SD = 2.0). There were no statistically significant sex differences on attitudes and anxiety toward statistics, but there were significant differences among areas of study programs.

The purpose of this research study was to explore the views of rural mathematics and science schools' educators about the impact of poor infrastructure in their work environment. Participants were seven educators whose ages ranged between 25 years and 50 years (M = 35.0 years, SD = 9.4). Data were collected through one-on-one interviews. The results show that educators identified a number of issues that they felt play a role in the learning and teaching context. In many respects, the educators painted a bleak picture in respect of poor infrastructure provisioning and the proper functioning of their schools. It is argued that there is an urgent need to address the participants' concerns. Furthermore, that government should provide proper and adequate school infrastructure wherein classrooms, laboratories and libraries are equipped to lead to favourable learning experiences.

The mathematics performance of graduating preservice teachers over a period of 3 years was examined for gender differences. Data were drawn from students' (170 men and 202 women) final year results from a College of Education in Nigeria. Findings revealed that the gender gap in mathematics achievement among the sample data could be disappearing. This is a source of hope for the country because results such as those reported here are contrary to the general Nigerian stereotypical belief about men's and women's performance in the subject. Although it is difficult to generalise to other geographical areas, it is anticipated that the study would be replicated in the rest of the country for a more meaningful and informative national picture.

South Africa’s performance in international benchmark tests is a major cause for concern amongst educators and policymakers, raising questions about the effectiveness of the curriculum reform efforts of the democratic era. The purpose of the study reported in this article was to investigate the degree of alignment between the TIMSS 2003 Grade 8 Mathematics assessment frameworks and the Revised National Curriculum Statements (RNCS) assessment standards for Grade 8 Mathematics, later revised to become the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS). Such an investigation could help to partly shed light on why South African learners do not perform well and point out discrepancies that need to be attended to. The methodology of document analysis was adopted for the study, with the RNCS and the TIMSS 2003 Grade 8 Mathematics frameworks forming the principal documents. Porter’s moderately complex index of alignment was adopted for its simplicity. The computed index of 0.751 for the alignment between the RNCS assessment standards and the TIMSS assessment objectives was found to be significantly statistically low, at the alpha level of 0.05, according to Fulmer’s critical values for 20 cells and 90 or 120 standard points. The study suggests that inadequate attention has been paid to the alignment of the South African mathematics curriculum to the successive TIMSS assessment frameworks in terms of the cognitive level descriptions. The study recommends that participation in TIMSS should rigorously and critically inform ongoing curriculum reform efforts.

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The aim of this paper is to assess and report the numeracy levels of unskilled and semi-skilled workers in three South African chrome mines in order to inform adult education practitioners of the need for greater efforts to educate mine workers. The target population consisted of 1,053 workers; the final sample was 873 participants who voluntarily agreed to partake in the study. The results presented here highlight three main findings: (1) that only 12 individuals (1.4%) were found to be numerate, (2) that female participants scored better than their male counterparts, and (3) that the numeracy level of participants older than 41 is extremely low.