Teachers' perceptions of whole number acquisition and associated pedagogy in the foundation phase

Kuhne, Cally

Teachers' perceptions of whole number acquisition and associated pedagogy in the foundation phase

Master Thesis

2004

Abstract

This dissertation is interested in the systematic analysis of teachers' comments regarding the ways in which young children learn number concepts. The motivation for this study is based on my experience with primary school teachers through the University of Cape Town's Schools Development Unit and my background in Foundation Phase mathematics learning and teaching. The purpose of this investigation is to analyse the discourse that teachers use when describing their knowledge and understanding of number acquisition. The investigation used semi-structured interviews as a primary source of data. The analysis of teachers' comments focused on transcripts from interviews conducted with six Foundation Phase teachers from rural and peri-urban schools in the Cape West Coast Winelands region of South Africa Each interview consisted of constructed virtual vignettes and associated open-ended questions. The vignettes were designed and selected to elicit subjective responses from teachers regarding their understanding about learning and classroom practice pertaining to number. The questions were designed to act as prompts to encourage teachers to reflect on, and express their opinions about, certain aspects of learning and teaching number in different contexts. In order to investigate teachers' comments, Steffe's theoretical framework for number development was used. This framework provided the reference for comparing teachers' comments and a language for interpretation. The analysis in this study presents the didactic discourse and highlights teachers' perceptions of bow children learn number in two parts. The first part relates to cognitive development of number and the second part to general didactic themes.

Keywords

education

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