Contexts preferred for use in mathematics by Swaziland high performing public schools' junior secondary learners

Students’ Reasons for Preferences of Contexts in Learning Mathematics

“…I have adapted this framework and have made one modification because I think that the most preferred contexts should not be shown to be directly influenced by the environment but rather should follow at the end of the line; from environment to identity to reasons to preferences for contexts (see figure 1). Thus in the modified framework, I agree with Ngcobo and Julie (2012) that the environment shapes formation of identity and that these identities influence the reasons for preferences. However, I further suggest that it is the reasons that determine the preferences and not that the environment directly influences the preferences, as Ngcobo and Julie (2012) suggest.…”

“…He therefore advises that learners preferences should be regarded with care. There is a difference between the Albania study and others such as Ngcobo and Julie (2012) in that the Albania study offered lessons which were of different mathematical content across the five contexts, as such the preferences were likely to also be influenced by the liking of specific kinds of mathematics, apart from the real life contexts and the level of difficulty of the topics.…”

“…This is not surprising because students from the African countries live in fairly similar societies and different from Norway and South Korea. Ngcobo and Julie (2012) analysed the reasons that students in Swaziland, average age 14-16 years, gave for their most preferred contexts and suggested two categories of reasons and subcategories. The first category was that of future related reasons with four subcategories of (i) access to university, (ii) career prospects, (iii) financial power or gain and (iv) business prospects.…”

“…This lack of literature on what students would find interesting as contexts in learning mathematics motivated a multinational study on relevance of school mathematics education (ROSME) project (Julie & Holtman, 2008). The ROSME studies have provided information on what students in different parts of the world would prefer as contexts; for example in Swaziland (Ngcobo & Julie, 2012), in Zimbabwe (Ndemo & Mtetwa, 2010), in Albania (Kacerja, Julie & Hadjerrouit, 2010;Kacerja, 2011), in South Africa (Julie & Mbekwa, 2005;Julie, 2012) and in South Korea (Kim, 2012). For most of these studies, reasons for the preferences of students for particular contexts have been explained in terms of the contemporary issues prevailing in the students' society and through the authors' insights of the society.…”

“…For most of these studies, reasons for the preferences of students for particular contexts have been explained in terms of the contemporary issues prevailing in the students' society and through the authors' insights of the society. Ngcobo and Julie (2012) and Kacerja (2011) explored students' reasons for their preferences, and point to the limited research in this area. The study reported in this paper explored the reasons students in Malawi have for their most preferred school mathematics contexts, thus the study contributes to filling the gap of limited research in this field.…”