Trigonometry is an important section in mathematics that links algebraic, geometric and graphical reasoning. Many secondary school learners are not familiar with these types of reasoning; thus, trigonometry presents a challenge for these learners. The traditional ‘chalk and talk’ method of teaching trigonometry is used by many teachers; however, this article is based on a case study that explores the innovative use of a dynamic online software program in the teaching and learning of Grade 10 trigonometric graphs. The participants in this study were 25 Grade 10 mathematics learners from one school in the south of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Data were collected by using two trigonometry worksheets, semi-structured interviews with selected learners and lesson observations. The worksheets were constructed based on the following focus areas: behaviour of graphs, interpretation of graphs, modelling and overall performance of the learner. In all focus areas, the participants’ scores improved significantly when working within the dynamic online environment. Further analysis revealed the following five themes: easy access, learners in control, technology is the future, motivation and meaningful interaction. These findings would be of interest to mathematics teachers, learners, curriculum developers and mathematics teacher educators.
The emphasis on programming and robotics owing to the unfolding of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on the African continent has led the South African National Department of Education to propose a new subject in Grades R to 9. Hence, the training and development of pre-service teachers is crucial so that they can respond to the skills needed in the Digital Age. This preliminary study set out to explore and gauge pre-service teachers' experiences of programming and robotics. Programming is perceived as being difficult and challenging because of its abstract nature. Block-based programming has gained popularity in introducing the novice to programming concepts. This paper presents a case of nine computer science pre-service teachers from a South African university and their experiences of physical computer programming using Scratch for Arduino. Data was collected from unstructured observations during a practical session followed by a semi-structured group interview. The meaningful implementation of physical computing was supported by Rogers's (Freedom to learn: A view of what education might become, Charles Merrill, 1969) experiential learning theory. A prominent finding was that physical programming affords the opportunity to learn electronics and programming simultaneously, making programming relevant and interesting. Programming with Scratch for Arduino takes advantage of the fact that an Arduino is a physical device when paired with Scratch, further making these concepts accessible in a concrete manner.
Governments around the world have temporarily closed educational institutions in an attempt to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). This has culminated in the largest school disruption in recent history. This study explored learners’ awareness of using smart educational systems (social networks) to support remote learning (e-learning). The study examined three constructs: Motivation, Active role, and Interaction, based on the theory of Connectivism. These constructs contributed to the development of a survey used to gather perspectives on social networks in education from a group of Business Studies learners in a South African high school. Data was collected from a sample of Business Studies learners (n=133) just before the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show there was an awareness of the use of social networks in education among learners. Therefore, social networks had the potential to support distance education during the pandemic.
This study, using a quantitative approach, examined Spanish and South African pre-service teachers’ responses to translating word problems based on direct proportionality into equations. The participants were 79 South African and 211 Spanish prospective primary school teachers who were in their second year of a Bachelor of Education degree. The study’s general objective was to compare the students’ proficiency in expressing direct proportionality word problems as equations, with a particular focus on the extent of the reversal error among the students’ responses. Furthermore, the study sought to test the explanatory power of word order matching and the static comparison as causes of the reversal error in the two contexts. The study found that South African students had a higher proportion of correct responses across all the items. While nearly all the errors made by Spanish students were reversals, the South African group barely committed reversal errors. However, a subgroup of the South African students made errors consisting of equations that do not make sense in the situation, suggesting that they had poor foundational knowledge of the multiplicative comparison relation and did not understand the functioning of the algebraic language. The study also found that the word order matching strategy has some explanatory power for the reversal error in both contexts. However, the static comparison strategy offers explanatory power only in the Spanish context, suggesting that there may be a difference in curriculum and instructional approaches in the middle and secondary years of schooling, which is when equations are taught.
The understanding of basic constructs in computer programming has always been seen by students as challenging, especially for novice programmers with no prior exposure at the school level. This paper emanates from a larger study and sets out to explore the use of robotics to enhance the learning of computer programming by asking: what are students’ experiences of using robotics when learning to program? Guided by Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle, a series of workshops were conducted that promotes hands-on learning and encourages the use of tools in the learning process for knowledge development. The site for this study was a university campus in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The sample was composed of 75 students, most of whom were first-year students who had just started a computer course and had no prior exposure to Computer Programming. The findings showed that the meaningful adoption of Kolb’s experiential learning has proven to be successful in the progressional development of computer programming constructs when using a physical component such as a robot. The use of microcontrollers that provide a robotic element offering a physical attribute during the learning of code proves to be affective. It is hoped that the findings of this study will contribute to the development of innovative methods to introduce computer programming through the use of robotics.
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