1.15 Summary of chapter
2.6.3 How are they teaching? (Teachers role)
Malik and Ghazi (2011) assert that a teacher is the backbone of any educational system because knowledge is transferred from the teacher to the taught (learner) and sometimes shared among themselves stated that secrete of quality education lies in the quality of teachers. Moreover, Fomunyam (2014) concurs with Senge (2000) as well as (Khoza, 2014) that a teacher is an expert who is capable of imparting knowledge that will help learners build, identify, and acquire skills that will be used to face the challenges in life and provides knowledge, skills, and values to the learners that enhance development. Further to this, in support of this, Khoza (2014) concurs with a study conducted by Fomunyam (2014) into eight teachers and sixteen groups of students exploring whether insight gained in studies about critical features can be shared by other teachers and used to improve the learning of other students. Consequently, the study reveals that the characteristics of excellent teachers are knowledge of how to identify, represent, and explain key concepts in Mathematics. This further, suggests that teachers teaching Mathematics in the Intermediate Phase should be driven by skill experience in order to understand and know their role in delivering the content that they are supposed to teach and learners master what are supposed to master (Coe, 2014; Loewenberg Ball, Thames, & Phelps, 2008).
Moreover, Fomunyam (2014) concurs with Khoza (2014) that the teacher uses their experience to construct and reconstruct their teaching experiences over time because meaningful teaching
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only builds upon previous knowledge. As a result, this suggests that teachers teaching Mathematics in the Intermediate Phase should be in possession of skill experience in order to impart knowledge and utilise potential and to facilitate the teaching and learning process.
Moreover, Kudryashova, Gorbatova, Rybushkina, and Ivanova (2016) indicated three levels of teachers’ roles namely; facilitator, moderator, and leader.
Moreover, Kudryashova et al. (2016) outlines that the teacher acts as a facilitator when they facilitate and use previously acquired knowledge in a new situation. The teachers’ role is determined by the approach that the teachers adopts (Khoza, 2015).In addition to the above, this is supported by a study conducted by Sormunen, Alamettälä, and Heinström (2013) who analysed how the design and implementation of group assignments affect learners’ learning experience. Furthermore, the data was collected in two secondary school classes where learners wrote a Wikipedia article in groups of three to five members. Thus, in literature class, learners reported stronger on learning experience, while in the history class, learners reported fewer and weaker on learning experience. Eventually, the analysis of data revealed that particular activities designed by literature teachers brought learners’ attention to relevant areas of learning. Subsequently, the findings suggest that the particular designs of the assignments and the ways of guiding learners strengthen their learning experiences. This suggests that teachers teaching Mathematics in the Intermediate Phase should act as facilitators, be innovative, guide learners, and afford learners an opportunity to display their abilities in understanding the mathematical concepts and its application when learning Mathematics by practicing the skill experience. In other words, teachers teaching Mathematics in the Intermediate Phase should ensure that learners’ activities are moderated during the learning and teaching process (Adelman-McCarthy et al., 2008).
In addition to the above, Kudryashova et al. (2016) asserts that teachers become moderators when they moderate learners’ activities by creating the necessary conditions for them to analyse, reflect, and reconceive the current knowledge in a co-operative manner. Moreover, the teacher organises and observes learners’ interactions in groups where they conduct joint activities, predict and form hypotheses or collect evidence to support generalisations, share ideas and suspend judgments, record observations, and discuss tentative alternatives (Florian, Rouse, & Black-Hawkins, 2016; Powell, Jacob, & Chapman, 2012). This further, suggests that
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teachers teaching Mathematics in the Intermediate Phase should be driven by the knowledge experiences to play their roles effectively in order to attain the desired goals for the intended curriculum. Furthermore, teachers should act as leaders during the teaching and learning process (Powell et al., 2012).
In addition to the above, according to Brigman (2011), teachers as leaders seek, teachers to take control of learners’ learning –using the best practices and research-based strategies out there. This may suggest that the Intermediate Phase Mathematics teachers should use attitude experiences to ensure that the goals of the intended curriculum are achieved. Brigman (2011), with the support of the Teachers Network, undertook a national survey of 1,210 teacher leaders, to better understand the role that participating in teacher leadership networks plays in supporting and retaining effective teachers in high needs urban schools. The study reveals that teachers’ leadership and collective expertise are tightly linked to students’ achievement, teachers search for innovative strategies as instructional and school leaders but are often stifled by prescriptive policies that drive them from the profession and teachers identify missing supports for leadership in their Mathematics classrooms as barriers to their empowerment and effectiveness. As a result, this suggests that teachers teaching Mathematics in the intermediate are regarded as the custodians of the intended curriculum and are in the position of trust and to lead learners achieve the CAPS goals, thus skill experience and knowledge experience should be employed efficiently. Consequently, teachers may personal understand the Mathematics content before because it is a reason for being assigned to teach Mathematics in the Intermediate Phase.
In addition to the above, the CAPS document is silent about the role of a teacher as a facilitator because CAPS came to replace the old curricula namely; OBE, RNCS, and NCS (Motshekga, 2009). Furthermore, the roles of teachers as facilitators changed into transmitters of knowledge, to achieve the desired goals, and the classroom activities mainly focused on teacher-centred activities (Kudryashova et al., 2016). Moreover, Motshekga (2009) is very vocal about moderation of activities by Mathematics teachers as the document articulates that School- Based Assessment (SBA) comprises forms of assessment which are conducted by the teacher at the school level. This includes assignments, projects, homework pieces, classwork pieces, tests, and listening exercises etc. Moreover, CAPS documents assert that all assessment tasks
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for subjects such as Mathematics must be moderated by the Head of Department (HOD) or specialist senior teacher at the school, prior to the administration of the assessment tasks (Motshekga, 2009). Thus, this suggests that teachers teaching Mathematics in the Intermediate Phase should be driven by knowledge experience during the moderation process of activities.
Further to this, the CAPS document asserts that teachers will lead, manage, and act as administrators whereby, they make decisions appropriate to the level of learning, lead learning in the classroom and participate in school leadership as well as to provide support through interpretation of CAPS (DBE, 2010a).