Literature review
Level 4 Rigor
2.7 Pre-service teachers and teacher education
instructional technology, which is a dynamic online environment that offers the user control and can help in adopting such strategies or methods.
summit noted that South African higher education and training was rated 86th and thus as insufficient. Labour market efficiency was 113th which was affected by extremely rigid hiring practices, while firing practices were rated as 143rd in the world. On the other hand, wage inflexibility was rated 139th, with labour-employer relations rated at 144th. The latter is due to the strong influence of trade unions in the school sector. Chigona, Chigona, Kayongo and Kausa (2010) and Pompa (2014) note that education suffers from a lack of resources and escalating costs and that teachers find themselves forced to teach subjects that are not their specialisation.
Bansilal, Brijlall and Mkhwanazi's (2014) study assessed the current knowledge of Grade 12 mathematics teachers. The teachers obtained an average of 57% percent for this assessment.
Furthermore, half of those sampled scored below 61 %, while a quarter of the sample received below 39%. This raises serious concerns about the teaching of mathematics by FET (Grades 10 to 12) teachers (Bansilal, Brijlall & Mkhwanazi, 2014). The use of technology is the cornerstone of the current teaching and learning era. As noted by the DBE (2015), the current generation of learners has always lived in a digital world, and has been surrounded from birth by digital products driven by on-going technological developments.
Teachers at all levels can explore ways to use technology to engage their learners. While this may entail a simple adjustment in some instances, in many cases it will require further professional development in the pedagogical use of these new technologies (Galligan, Loch, McDonald &Taylor, 2010). According to Mofokeng and Mji (2009), many studies on ICT integration have found that lack of confidence is a barrier to ICT integration in mathematics.
Many teachers find it challenging or impossible to integrate technology in their lessons as it is either not available or not easily accessible to them or their learners (Davies, 2013).
Teachers' knowledge and willingness to adopt ICT is often associated with sociological factors such as age and teaching experience using ICT (Chigona, Chigona, Kayongo &Kausa, 2010; Cox &Marshall, 2007).
For novice teachers who are entering the profession, it is imperative to experience the excitement of being a part of a real classroom setting, getting to know learners, and planning and organising classroom tasks during teaching practice (Kiggundu & Nayimuli, 2009).
Preparing teachers to use technology is emphasised in ICT policies and reports. Teachers need to know how to evaluate technology and to determine which is best suited to their learners, their classroom, the curriculum; and their teaching style.The KwaZulu-Natal (KZN)
Department of Education's e-Education strategy implementation 2014-2019 introduces teacher certification which is based on their teaching strategy and ICT implementation (e- Education strategy, 2015).
In order to understand how one thinks when posed with a problem, one needs to look back on previous, similar experiences (Harvard, 2013). John Dewey proposed that teachers should work with learners' current understanding by taking into account their prior knowledge (Chambliss, 2003). Miller (2011) explains that when one asks a teacher what they are doing tomorrow they are likely to answer: page 65, which often means they will write page 65 on the chalkboard and have learners copy it and recite it; this becomes the lesson. It is clear that many teachers are limiting their resources by utilising a single textbook to guide their lessons.
This eliminates any meaningful link between prior and current and future knowledge. Learner engagement with the subject content is disregarded, and there is a tendency for teachers to treat learners like robots who are waiting to be fed with information on what needs to be done next in the curriculum.
In order for South Africa to provide quality education at global standards, graduate teachers must prepare themselves to engage with learners in the teaching and learning environment. A study conducted by Shapley, Sheehan, Maloney, and Walker (2010) found that the majority of teachers use available ICTs for only administrative purposes while learners only use the Internet for the completion of projects. The CAPS assigns four-and-a-half hours per week for the teaching of Mathematics in Senior FET (Grades 7-9), and Grades 10-12 receive ± 40 weeks of teaching (Department of Basic Education, 2011). It is impossible to integrate ICTs in every lesson as other school activities disrupt and reduce teaching time. A systemic evaluation conducted in 2012 by the DBE and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study in 2011 (Mullis, Martin, Foy &Arora, 2012) found that learners struggled to understand geometric concepts and performed extremely poorly in geometry. Furthermore, the DBE (2014b) NSC diagnostic report states,
"more time needs to be spent on the teaching of geometry in all the grades. There needs to be enough time to explain the theorems properly and in a practical way - for learners to be able to see, to recognise the theorems featuring in a sketch; for learners to understand and practice the proofs of theorems; and for learners to practice enough how to apply the theorems in riders" (p. 117).
Pre-service teachers in the school of Mathematics Education are usually taught a set of core modules that are based on their phase specialisation. They are also required to complete a set of method modules that explore different methodologies for teaching Mathematics. Qualman
(2012) notes that half of the knowledge that students learn in the first half year of their four years of study at university will be outdated by the time they reach third year. In terms of geometry, some PSTs were not able to make the connection between content knowledge and demonstrating through conceptual application (Weber, 2001). The ability to recognise a theorem does not mean that one can apply it correctly. It is thus imperative that PSTs are exposed to a variety of technological advancements during their teacher training. This would enable them to respond and communicate with learners' needs in Mathematics in a meaningful way (Almenara &Diaz, 2012), and at the same time gain mastery of the subject content.
As noted previously, geometry was re-introduced into the curriculum in 2014 and all learners were assessed. In the first year, learners were assisted by providing a number of fill in questions, as well as other questions that were very straightforward. It cannot be assumed that this style of questioning will continue indefinitely. Over time, questions are likely to become more difficult as the geometry content becomes a norm among learners and teachers.
Therefore it is imperative that teachers prepare their learners for basic questions (knowledge and routine) as well as higher level questions (complex and problem-solving) in Euclidean geometry (Department of Basic Education, 2014b).
Northcote and Lim (2009) suggest that, in order to improve teacher training, it should include world-wide networking through the Internet, web-site learning, interactive self-learning, multi-media facilities, learning materials; and video-conferencing for local and international sharing and exposure. Teacher training faculties and tertiary institutions as a whole are implementing e-learning to keep students abreast of modern developments and promote competitiveness. The teacher training program comprises compulsory method and teaching practice modules, which explore and incorporate the latest technology in classrooms.
Technological trends produce new, challenging situations in the educational context in the training of both teachers and learners (Almenara & Diaz, 2012). This results in unlimited exposure to innovative teaching methods locally and globally, since the philosophy of the teacher determines the choice of the syllabus content and the teaching style (Lerman, 1983).
For example the use of mobile phones in a class to find maps and locations, capture data and build computer games exercises learners' Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS).
Furthermore, with the advancement of technology like mobile devices, they can be used to take measurements like lung capacity, oxygen in the air, heart rate, and distance, etc.