GRADE 3 MATHEMATICS COMMON PROVINCIAL ASSESSMENT TASK ITEM ANALYSIS
5.3 Summary of findings and conclusions
5.3.4. Resources
It has been revealed from literature that without resources no meaningful teaching and learning can effectively take place. Furthermore, it was also revealed that curriculum
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implementation without utilisation of relevant resources may fail. Literature identified various resources that are used in Mathematics and also classified them into hardware, software and ideological-ware resources (Khoza, 2013). Therefore, utilisation of relevant resources for the teaching of each subject is a norm. Educators need to be provided with resources by the Department of Education and other stakeholders who are in partnership with the Department of Education in a bid to improve performance in Mathematics. Literature also revealed that the use of technological resources is on the rise and takes centre stage in the successful teaching of Mathematics. The use of these resources, according to (Gojack, 2014), has increased the importance of student reasoning and opportunities to make sense of Mathematics. Therefore, in this study, the use of technological resources has helped the classroom educators. CAPS also outlines mathematical resources to be used in Grade 3 and the whole Foundation Phase where they are only limited to hardware resources (CDBE, 2011a, p. 16). The findings revealed that the SAs use adequate resources during the supervision of Mathematics in Grade 3.
However, they did not indicate whether the teachers they supervise have the resources or not, but they expect teachers to have them and utilise them. It is only a challenge in schools which have no resources. It was also found that that during the second reflection phase, SAs used hardware resources when supervising and capacitating educators as the main resource. This included the math kits, monitoring tools for math lessons, workbook utilisation and other content relevant for monitoring. In the second phase, findings showed that they started using the software and ideological-ware resources. They engaged in theories like Blooms taxonomy, Piaget‘s levels of cognitive development while additional readings also helped in transforming how they viewed the supervision of Mathematics. Additionally, they also found the use of software resources like WhatsApp messenger and Short Message System (SMS) very beneficial, cost effective and time-saving as it enabled them to easily access as many educators as possible; simultaneously and within a short period of time. At first, findings revealed that SAs were sceptical of these available software resources because of their attitudes and misconceptions about social media. It may therefore be concluded that proper utilisation and management of available resources is critical. SAs also need to ensure that resources in classrooms are available and properly managed by educators for successful Mathematics curriculum implementation.
141 5.3.5. Supervision Activities
Literature reviewed does not specifically identify the actual supervision activities that the SAs carry out during supervision and support visits. However, literature highlighted that teaching and learning activities should be provided in a way that helps learners to understand the main mathematical concepts and understand the solid industry of the numeration system.
Furthermore, it indicated that the teaching activities should focus on developing learners‘
interests in mathematics. Based on the literature, it is recommended that these can be achievable when teachers use enquiry-based teaching methods in their classroom. It was further revealed in the literature that CAPS mathematics in the Foundation Phase specifies teaching guidelines with suggested activities and questions that may be asked during these activities. SAs are very much aware of these activities, and as such it was highlighted in literature review that it is the responsibility of Subject Advisor to build capacity of educators by strengthening their understanding of mathematics (AMTE, 2010). Furthermore, Ololube and Major (2014) indicated that SAs are responsible for assisting teachers to know and apply methods that help teachers in planning daily, meaningful, mathematics activities (Ololube &
Major, 2014).
The findings of this study indicate that in pursuit of helping educators to understand content, identify relevant teaching methods, and plan activities, SAs‘ conducted daily classroom visits, workshops focused on content, and also monitored utilisation of workbooks. The findings further indicate that in the first phase of reflection the activities were not proving to yield positive results as educators were not contributing anything to their own development.
This approach employed the technical approach to curriculum implementation which is consistent with CAPS but offered teachers little and hindered their autonomy. Findings from the second cycle of reflection indicate that teachers became more involved and contributed a lot more as SAs now employed what Hoadley and Jansen (2012) call the critical/action reflection or the process/competence approach. Though the approach is not consistent with CAPS curriculum, it offered SAs an opportunity to actively engage teachers.
Though competence and performance curriculum do not engage in some focus areas, both frameworks‘ good practice may be transferred form one curriculum framework to the other.
SAs may use both competence and performance curriculum frameworks as they deal with teachers who are adults and who will be able to reflect. Involving teachers in decision making related to their classroom practice helps them to become more productive and reflective.
142 5.3.6. Roles
The literature identified specific Subject Advisor roles as specified by the Department of Education and other authorities from other countries. It was revealed that amongst others, their roles are to monitor and support curriculum implementation; ensure that educators have relevant policy documents for the subject and support educators in delivering curriculum in the classroom. They also have to support initiatives that are set to improve numeracy and literacy. Again, they serve the purpose of assisting educators in building their mathematical and pedagogical knowledge. Lastly, they have to ensure attainment of high quality school mathematics programmes through knowledge and skills they impart to educators. These roles are consistent with roles of other SAs in various countries around the world.
According to the research findings, SAs‘ roles in the first cycle of reflection are influenced by their roles as stipulated by the department. Their roles are strongly related to the supervision activities that are carry out during supervision for improving teaching and learning overall.
Therefore, findings from the second phase reflected a shift from the technisist view to the more liberating view. The findings indicate that as much as the SAs‘ roles are pre- determined, they were able to be autonomous and realised that they cannot work in isolation;
hence the engagement of the educators is needed in transforming SAs‘ supervision practice.
SAs‘ roles are therefore consistent with roles of SAs elsewhere. The uniformity poses a challenge as their roles make them (SAs) operate as technicians and portray supervision as a scarecrow for educators whereby they view them as threats and tend to resist support. This will in turn hinder successful curriculum implementation. Therefore, the transformational process of involving educators that was adopted by SAs in this study needs to be adopted by all the SAs.