The purpose of the study is to understand how students' conceptions and perceptions of mathematics influence how they perform in mathematics and in courses with mathematics as the underlying method as expressed in mathematics outcomes. The study also attempts to establish how students' conceptions and perceptions prefigure students' choice of research method for their current research (narratives vs figures) versus this choice made on the basis of the type of data.
Background
This study also investigates students' concepts and perceptions to specifically understand students' poor performance in mathematics at the postgraduate level. Given that meanings help us understand the social environment as Lerman asserts, so do concepts and perceptions as meanings.
Mathematics in the Social Sciences
This highlights the complementarity between mathematical applications and non-mathematical applications in the social sciences. Elding traces the use of mathematics in the social sciences to the eighteenth-century study of probability and decision-making by de Condorset, a French philosopher.
The Research Context and Setting
The place of sociology as a branch of the social sciences in the study of students' beliefs and perceptions of mathematics is to understand mathematics not as a technical subject, but as a social practice. Could it also be that entry requirements send a misleading signal to students' expectations about mathematical content and its value in the social sciences?
Rationale of the study
Statement of the problem
Significance of the Research
This is the contribution the research aims to make: an understanding and full understanding of the problem of poor mathematics achievement as a starting point in tackling the problem. The qualitative nature of the research captures the deep-seated issues surrounding meanings and the attribution of meanings.
Research Aim, Objectives and Research Questions
Aim of the study
Research objectives
Research Questions
Key concepts
Structure of the Dissertation
Chapter five reports the results of the study and presents the findings from the data collected. The chapter ends with a discussion of the conclusions drawn from the study and these are presented in the sixth chapter.
Conceptual Framework- Introduction
Conceptions and Perceptions
In other words, cognitive psychology emphasizes the mental processes involved in understanding the social environment. 15 Aspects of social reality can be anything in the social environment, such as social objects, symbols, and people—anything and everything that people interact with.
Individual and Social Meanings
The investigation into individual meanings can be misinterpreted as the derivation of the social from an aggregation of individuals, warns Inghilleri (2005:128). The study focuses on the social structure of meanings to which individual meanings are a member.
Heterogeneity and Reflexivity-The Key Characteristic Features of Meanings
The evolutionary nature of meanings has been explained in the theoretical framework put forward by Bourdieu. This means that change in the 'social landscape' is one of the factors that leads to the reconfiguration of meanings.
Experience and Social Interaction in Prefiguring Meanings
In other words, awareness of the social environment arises from interaction with the social environment. Traditional psychology has tended to “gloss over” the role of the social environment in predicting mental processes (Rubinstein, 2001: 151).
Theoretical Framework- Introduction
- Social Constructivism
- Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Social Practice
- How Bourdieu’s Theory is used in Education
- Habitus
- Cultural capital
- Social and Economic Capital
- Field
Social capital is a possible outcome of the social practice of conversational interaction (Falk and Kilpatrick 2000:6), through the strengthening of human capital, and such is the connection between social constructivism and Bourdieu's theory of social practice. The capabilities of the environment are what the social environment offers to the individual for use in everyday life.
Introduction
As already noted, students' conceptions and perceptions of mathematics are investigated with the aim of investigating and understanding poor mathematics performance, particularly by students in the social sciences, bearing in mind Zettle's observation that most students enter the social sciences with the hope that there are few. or no math at all. Improving student learning outcomes has been the primary focus of studies on students' conceptions and perceptions of mathematics from the late 1970s to the present.
University Students’ Conceptions and Perceptions of Mathematics
- The nature of mathematical knowledge
- The character of mathematical activity
- The essence of learning mathematics
- Life conception
Douglas (1996:15) argues that the perceived utility or value of mathematics is a key determinant of whether students pursue mathematics or not. The emphasis on students' progress in their conceptualization of mathematics to a level where mathematics is perceived as a way of life (Reid 2003) is an imprint of Entwistle's (2004) conception of the 'stage theory'.
Students’ Perceptions of the Learning Environment
Teachers’ beliefs, conceptions of teaching and reflective practice
Proponents of the ability grouping approach argue that it caters to the students' individual academic needs as students are grouped according to their high, average or low performance standard. It is as endorsed by Zevenbergen that the students' ability is the interpretation made by teachers.
Teacher-student relationship
A desirable course context has been identified by Entwistle et al (2002:9) as one that arouses student interest and is based on sufficient time allocated for students' thorough involvement in tasks. The group work approach strengthens the social construction of knowledge in mathematics learning as advanced in the theoretical framework.
Students Orientations and out-of Classroom Pressures/ Social Structures
This therefore suggests that the choices and their educational preferences are mediated by the cultural capital embedded in their habitus as a result of the interaction between agency and the familial habitus. The cultural capital of the students is then reflected in their choices and preferences, such as the institutional habitus and that of the students.
Conceptions of Learning and Knowledge
The importance of this discussion stems from the fact that the apartheid era passed the baton to the post-apartheid era, which structured the systematic operation of the South African education system as we know it. Curriculum reforms during the apartheid era were thus structured to reflect the priorities and vision of the government of the time.
Mathematics Learning in other SADC Countries
The only difference between the apartheid and post-apartheid eras is that "the persistence of inequality in South Africa in the post-apartheid era is not intra-racial but intra-racial"32. This is evidenced by the growing number of black people. working-class parents who can afford to send their children to expensive semi-private and formerly "white" public schools, which provide higher quality education than black-dominated public schools in formerly black neighborhoods (Nattrass and Seekings. Woolman (2006:33) argues that the mathematics curriculum for most countries in Africa reflects the curricula of the countries that colonized them.
Conclusion
The author notes that mathematics is a compulsory subject for students in all sub-Saharan countries, even though countries have localized curricula. This therefore confirms a similar approach to learning mathematics for most countries in Africa with some different cultural contexts and languages.
Introduction
The Philosophical Assumptions of Phenomenography: Interpretism
Phenomenography and Qualitative Research
It is also through the web of individual understandings that students' shared understandings of mathematics are mapped. The suitability of the phenomenographic approach for research also follows the reliable and adequate application of this approach in studies that investigate students' concepts and or perceptions of mathematics in general and studies that "investigate the cultural pattern of subjective experience" (Throop et al. separately.
Type of study
This is because sociology is primarily concerned with how individual meanings are synthesized to create the social. The phenomenographic nature of the study emphasizes the existence of multiple realities and pursues individuals through their experiences of social contexts.
Research Setting
As Kraus says, qualitative studies facilitate understanding of the interconnectedness of processes that underlie people's process of attributing meaning.
Sampling
Such diversity makes the social sciences fertile ground for achieving research objectives. 1 of the female doctoral students are from KZHZH and 2 of the male doctoral students are KZHAJ.
Data Collection Method
Data Collection Instrument
Data Collection Process
All interviews were in English, as expected, except for one participant who preferred Zulu. It was noted that the interview in Zulu took longer than the interviews in English (approximately 45 minutes) as the participant took time to explain.
Interpretation and analysis of data
This can be attributed to the fact that it is observed that there is a lot of repetition, detail and emphasis in the Zulu dialect compared to English, the use of which was found to be an advantage rather than a disadvantage for the study. Capturing the structures and relationships in the phenomenographic approach thus brings a clear understanding of the phenomenon.
Ethical Considerations
It was indicated that the participants were free to end the discussions if they felt uncomfortable during the discussions. The objectives of the study were explained to the participants before the start of the interview. d) Anonymity and confidentiality: This is primarily concerned with an individual's right to privacy.
Limitations of the Study
The hard and electronic data from the study were kept securely by the researcher during the analysis process and transferred to the supervisor after analysis, according to university procedure. It is also noted that the views of the study come entirely from Black students.
Conclusion
While it would have been informative if more than one race had participated, the dominance of Black students in the study is a true reflection of the graduate program in the social sciences. The study only examines how conceptions and perceptions influence performance in mathematics (one directional relationship) and does not pursue the inverse relationship where mathematics influences conceptions and perceptions.
Introduction
The presentation of the findings and discussions is not in the order in which the questions were asked in the questionnaire for two reasons. For this reason, the application of both concepts is adopted in this part of the study.
What Mathematics Means to UKZN Masters and PhD Social Science Students
The Social Meanings of Mathematics
There was general consensus among the students that mathematics was given a central place in the dominant culture. Interestingly, some of them are the very students who recognize that mathematics is gaining a dominant place in the dominant culture.
Mapping Social Factors that Inform Students’ Perceptions and Conceptions of Mathematics - 90
- Organisation of content
- Teacher-Student Relationships
- Teacher’s perceptions of mathematics
- Perceived Usefulness of Mathematics to Post Graduate Social Science Students
The students' submissions highlighted the role of the organization of mathematics content and its presentation in influencing how they viewed mathematics. The teacher overpowers the students' freedom of choice because they have to tolerate his/her way of working.
Social support in Mathematics Learning
Students recognized the usefulness of mathematics in the social sciences as a subspecies of statistics or as a language in which to conduct statistical or quantitative research. In particular, students who admitted to relying on study groups vastly outnumbered those who were willing to try things out independently.
The Perceived Link between Mathematics and Statistics
Most of the students also insisted that their math ability has nothing to do with their statistics ability. The students seem to suggest that the mathematical content in statistics is not intimidating because it is minimal.
Conceptions and Perceptions of Mathematics in Prefiguring Educational Choices
The fact that ten out of twelve students used qualitative analysis is particularly surprising. As Daniel, Habib, and South-Hall argue in the literature, most mathematics curriculum reforms were unsuccessful.
Conclusion
Introduction
To what extent do social science students' ideas about and perceptions of mathematics influence their choice of research method for their further education. What is the relationship between post-graduate social science students' conceptions and perceptions and mathematics achievement.
Summary of Key Findings
Although the study aimed to determine how students' conceptions and perceptions affect mathematics, a one-way relationship between the concepts, the study concludes that there is an inverse relationship between the concepts. The value of students' know-how, skills and competencies as cultural tools is validated when students engage in mathematics habitus as the dominant culture of society.
Theoretical and Methodological Implications
This applies to the structural adaptations implemented in the education system: that any curriculum change that ignores changing the social environment as a central structuring factor on which parents' and teachers' conceptions and perceptions, as well as students' competences, skills and know-how, are based. embedded, is a futile endeavour. The study has shown how some of the students managed to 'crack the mathematics code'.
Policy Implications
The study supports the instrumentality of students' conceptions and perceptions in understanding student learning outcomes through the use of one-to-one interviews to gain access to the individual's world. Future studies can explore the ethnographic route alongside the interviews to capture the dynamics that inform poor math performance firsthand and in great detail.
Recommendations for Future Studies
Such consistency of meaning, regardless of the shifting periods, is a suggested area of research that could be explored by future studies. Finally, it is suggested that future studies go beyond the one guiding relationship where conceptions and perceptions influence mathematics to how the concepts reinforce each other.
Conclusion
Mathematics in the Workplace and Higher Education, Volume 12, No. Educational Investment, Family Context, and Children's Mathematics and Reading Growth from Kindergarten to Third Grade. Clarifying the meaning of mathematical objects as a priority research area in mathematics education. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education.Vol.2, No.2, pp.
Questionnaire/Research Instrument
Or did the mathematical content of some of your courses influence your choice of modules?. If you had to change or suggest anything about the mathematical content of postgraduate social science modules, what would it be?.
Humanities and Social Science Research Ethics Committee Approval
Registrar’s Approval to Conduct Research
Consent Form
Declaration
Editing Confirmation
Turnitin Digital Receipt
