Concept 7: Assessment How is your supervision assessed/
2.5.4. Content and Time
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with the content makes it easier for SAs to know what and when they should supervise in a Grade 3 mathematics classroom.
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multiplication techniques appropriate to their level. The French Ministry of National Education (1995), in Fowler and Poetter (2004, p. 298), further clarify that in other areas, learners ―… learn about the organization of space; learn to recognize a few simple geometric figures; gain skills in locating points in space and in constructing and reproducing geometric figures; and begin to master measurements of length and weight‖.
In another case study, whereby the focus was on learners, Munn (2006) set out to explore young children‘s experience of the British primary maths curriculum, illustrating data from a longitudinal study of early maths concepts for 5 to 8 year olds. In this study, Munn (2006) agrees that in the Scottish P3 curriculum learners are required to learn about multiplication, including times tables and division. As part of the study, the fact that learners in the study were given activities of counting, naming numbers words, counting backwards, etc. suggests that this is some of the mathematical content areas taught in Scotland. Content (DBE, 2011a) refers to the mathematical areas in which learners are expected to develop numeracy skills.
The five curriculum outcome areas, which in Mathematics Foundation CAPS are identified as content areas, were identified from the Kenya maths curriculum (Government of Kenya, 2002) as: Number concepts and operations, Patterns and algebra, Measurements, Geometry and Basic statistics.
According to the CAPS Mathematics Foundation Phase (DBEa, 2011), the Mathematical content that needs to be taught to learners are Number, operation and relationships; Patterns, functions and algebra; Space and shape, Measurement and Data handling. The Number, Operations and Relationships content area encompasses a number of topics and some strategies that need to be used when performing calculations. These topics are: counting objects; counting forwards and backwards; number symbols and number names; describe, compare and order numbers; place value; problem solving techniques; addition and subtraction; repeated addition leading to multiplication; sharing leading to fractions; money;
division, mental mathematics and fractions. In Patterns, Function and Algebra learners are taught geometric and number patterns. For Space and Shape positions, orientation, views, 3- D objects and 2-D shapes are the main focus. The Measurement content area involves time, length, mass, capacity, perimeter and area; and the use of standard and non-standard units of measurement. Lastly, Data handling, whereby learners learn how to collect and organise data, represent data and analyse and represent it.
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Furthermore, each content area is weighted and allocated a specific time for teaching and learning. For Grade 3 Mathematics total teaching and learning time is seven hours per week (420 minutes), of which 120 minutes is allocated to Number, Operations and Relationships;
whereas Patterns, Function and Algebra; Space and Shape and Measurement are allocated 80 minutes each. Data Handling is allocated 60 minutes. Furthermore, for each content topic, e.g. Number, operations and relationships (Money), there are concepts and focused skills that need to be developed for each term. However, there seems to be a lot of contradiction on the weighting, time allocation and balancing of the total number of lessons in CAPS with total number of activities in the DBE Workbooks. See the table below, focusing on content of Term 3:
Total time allocation for Grade 3 mathematics per week is 7 Hours Content Area Weightin
g Suggested number of
lessons for Term 3 Number of activities per content area in the DBE Workbook per term
Time allocation per content area per week Numbers,
Operations and Relationships
58% All topics of Numbers, Operations and
Relationships (19)
22 120 minutes
Patterns, Functions and Algebra
10% Number Patterns (3) 5 80 minutes
Geometric Patterns(1)
Space and Shape 13% 3-D shapes (2) 1 80 minutes
2- D shapes (3) 1
Position, orientation and
views (3) 1
Symmetry
Measurement 14% Time (3) 1 80 minutes
Length (2) 1
Mass
Capacity/ volume
40 Perimeter (1) Area
Data Handling 5% Whole data cycle (3) 1 60 minutes Sections of data cycle
Total 420 Minutes
(7 hours per week)
Table 3: Grade 3 content focus, weighting and time allocation
If, as CAPS indicates: ―On average, three or more Mathematics lessons each week should focus on Number, Operations and Relationship. Then remaining time is spilt among the other content areas‖ (DBE, 2011a p. 37), then we are looking at a 1hr 24 minute lesson each day, which is converted to 1hr 30 minutes in schools due to difficulty allocating the 1hr 24 minutes on the time table. If we take 3 days to teach Number, Operations and Relationships, then we have 2 days to teach other content areas which suggest that some content areas may not be taught every week. On the contrary, the very same Mathematics CAPS indicates time allocation for each content area per week. The above means that the Mathematics content and time allocation for each content area are not consistent and practical, therefore they cannot be sustained.
On the positive side, there are also some teaching guidelines which guide the educators as to how they can unpack particular content, with suggested activities. This can be viewed as a positive aspect for CAPS Mathematics as it helps in guiding, especially novice, educators who do not know what is to be taught and have no or little idea as to how it should be taught.
However, for Grade 3 Mathematics there is no evidence that they understand the content or have in-depth knowledge because learners are continuing to underperform in national and provincially set assessments. In agreement, the findings of a study conducted by Jansen (2009) about organising knowledge for the classroom, suggested that "Foundation Phase educators lacked content knowledge to teach Mathematics and knew very little about phonics in Literacy" (Jansen, 2009, p. 100). It may therefore be asserted that educators are experiencing different challenges resulting from the quality of teacher training, in-service training or support they receive. Perhaps the issue of time allocation may be aggravating the problem too.
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In a study conducted by Khoza (2015a), the findings suggested that most of the participants were aware and understood the content that they are supposed to cover for the subject they teach. In addition the participants were able to interpret the content and the time given to each of the topics. They reflected that the content and time given to the content was the strength of the CAPS as they all understood these issues (content and time). There was also consensus that the time given to the content is relevant and they fully support it (Khoza, 2015a). It may therefore be argued that educators are aware of what they are expected to teach in terms of the CAPS Mathematics Grade 3 content. Therefore, based on the reviewed literature, it may be argued that the content of the Grade 3 mathematics CAPS is relevant as it covers all basic aspects of a typical Mathematics curriculum content as compared to other countries and can be sustained if adequate support is provided to educators. To date the issue of consistency may not be validated as this is only the third year of implementation. One may assert that the curriculum content is sustainable because other countries have sustained the very same content for years. Furthermore, even with the enactment of C2005, the very same content was used, though a different approach was employed. The content is also practical in a sense that the curriculum content is user friendly for educators. In evaluating the mathematical content in CAPS it may be concluded that can be sustained when adequate support is provided to educators by SAs.
It is therefore through supervision by SAs that educators are exposed to a wealth of curriculum support; however it is not explicitly clear as to why learners are not doing well.
Should the issue of lack of adequate content knowledge be the cause of underperformance of learners? Adler, Ball, Krainer, Lailin and Novotna (2005) argue that many practicing educators have not done some of the Mathematics content that they are supposed to teach. If they did it, they might have not learned it in ways that enable them to teach it in current circumstances. Kelly (1999) concurs by adding that educators face challenges because they are not always sure of what content they should teach or the order to follow when introducing concepts. Sometimes they find it to be not specific enough, or that the curriculum is too rigid and does not allow educators to be autonomous. This suggests that to teach Mathematics successfully and for learners to achieve desired outcomes, educators need to understand the Mathematics content that they are supposed to teach and they also need to see how ideas connect across the fields and to everyday life. Understanding these connections offers educators the basis of their pedagogical content knowledge which will make it easy for them