Mathematics, Science and Technology Education

To many, the teaching and learning of science is only achievable in the classroom and the laboratory in some cases. This notion has made many school learners and educators to abandon the teaching and learning of science or doing it haphazardly complaining that they lack the material and human resources. This paper examined the teaching of Saponification reactions in Organic Chemistry to undergraduates using special ODL strategies outside the classroom and organised laboratories. The strategies used are Skype technology and animation. The teaching involved both theory and practice and on evaluation, the learners proved to be as competent as if they taught in contact sessions. The study showed that sciences such as life science, physical science and related disciplines can be effectively taught and learnt through the ODL approach in schools, particularly at the University level.

The purpose of this research was to investigate specific areas of difficulty for undergraduate University students in Organic Chemistry and to identify the sources of difficulty for Chemistry students in order to scientifically determine ways of improvement. The study was conducted in three years with 177 first year Chemistry students and 4 Organic Chemistry lecturers who have minimum five years teaching experience. Document analysis of examination scripts of 177 Chemistry students based on 54 Organic Chemistry questions, interviews on sampled Chemistry students, and questionnaires administered on all the 177 Chemistry students as well as the 4 Organic Chemistry lecturers were analysed. The Chemistry teachers’ questionnaire investigated the teachers’ perceptions about teaching Organic Chemistry in terms of any difficult topics, to identify the sources of difficulty, and to identify possible ways of improvement. The document analysis was conducted to assess students’ achievement and ...

This paper is a report of research carried out in the United Kingdom, Nigeria and South Africa involving a total of 146 participants. It has become an open cry all over South Africa about the deplorable Physical science matriculation results since the recent years raising such key issues as: inadequate content knowledge acquisition among the educators, deficiency in pedagogical approaches, among others as reasons for the registered poor performance of both educators and learners in Physical science. The study aimed at using the Sandwich programme as one way of solving the observed problems and also improve the quantity and quality of Chemistry educators in the Country given the importance of the learning area in the development of science and technology and hence the economy of any nation. The study employed a mixed method approach involving a Questionnaire on the Application and Effectiveness of Sandwich Programmes for the Improvement of Chemistry Teaching (QAESPICT) and an Intervi...

The aim of this research was to explore the alternative conceptions about galvanic cells by both teachers and students. The achievement of students has been low in the galvanic cells questions over the past years which is of a great concern and had not been researched on, in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The main research question was: How can teachers’ and students’ alternative conceptions about galvanic cell in electrochemistry be addressed to improve students’ achievement? Research efforts had been on teaching strategies to address alternative conceptions about galvanic cells and no studies available to the researchers, have been reported on the latest alternative conceptions nor reported on how teachers had tried to address these alternative conceptions in recent times. Alternative conceptions about galvanic cells, teaching strategies and teaching approaches form part of the conceptual framework. Convergent mixed method with teachers’ and students’ questionnaires, teacher and studen...

This paper profiles a community engaged initiative that is in a form of a teacher development programme (TDP) offered by the Institute for Science and Technology Education (ISTE). The programme sought to improve grade 12 mathematics and science teachers’ content knowledge. The ISTE TDP adopts an iterative approach where feedback from participating teachers informed the planning and design of the following year’s edition. ISTE TDP is based on the teachers’ needs; conducted by facilitators who are significantly versed in the teaching and learning conditions in schools; has interactive sessions that are largely participant-centred; and takes place over 5days of 8hours each. The benefit of ISTE TDP is a capacitated community of teachers with more confidence and enthusiasm.

Pythagoras serves as an academic and professional forum for the presentation and critical discussion of current research and developments in Mathematics Education in South Africa and internationally. Pythagoras publishes original papers that significantly contribute to our understanding of mathematics teaching, learning and curriculum, including reports of research (experiments, case studies, surveys, philosophical and historical studies, ...), critical analyses of school mathematics curricular and teacher development initiatives, literature reviews, theoretical analyses, exposition of mathematical thinking (mathematical practices) and commentaries on issues relating to the teaching and learning of mathematics at all levels of education.

The mathematics performance of graduating preservice teachers over a period of 3 years was examined for gender differences. Data were drawn from students’ (170 men and 202 women) final year results from a College of Education in Nigeria. Findings revealed that the gender gap in mathematics achievement among the sample data could be disappearing. This is a source of hope for the country because results such as those reported here are contrary to the general Nigerian stereotypical belief about men’s and women’s performance in the subject. Although it is difficult to generalise to other geographical areas, it is anticipated that the study would be replicated inthe rest of the country for a more meaningful and informative national picture.

The aim of this paper is to assess and report the numeracy levels of unskilled and semiskilled workers in three South African chrome mines in order to inform adult education practitioners of the need for greater efforts to educate mine workers. The target population consisted of 1,053 workers; the final sample was 873 participants who voluntarily agreed to partake in the study. The results presented here highlight three main findings: (1) that only 12 individuals (1.4%) were found to be numerate, (2) that female participants scored better than their male counterparts, and (3) that the numeracy level of participants older than 41 is extremely low.

This study, using a non-experimental, exploratory and descriptive method, established learners' and educators' views about factors that contribute to poor performance in mathematics and physical science. Participants were purposefully selected from seven schools with poor pass rates in District 3 of Tshwane North. Focused group interviews with ten Grade 11 learners from each school were used as a means to collect data. In addition, one-on-one semistructured interviews were conducted with ten educators from the participating schools. Results indicated that two factors were identifiable. The first identified to have a direct influence related to teaching strategies, content knowledge, motivation, laboratory use, and non-completion of the syllabus in a year. The second factor, associated with indirect influences, was attributed to the role played by parents in their children's education, and general language usage together with its understanding in the two subjects. Recomme...

Objectives: The study aimed to explore mathematical word problem solving abilities among Grade 9 learners in Tshwane North District Schools. It highlighted how language plays a pivotal role in learning mathematics and understanding mathematical word problems. Moreover, it showed how language inadequecy and incorrect translation affect Grade 9 learners' solutions to mathmatical word problems in schools around Tshwane North District. Methods: The study used both qualitative and quantitative methods. It also made use of contextual, exploratory, and descriptive statistical data. The study involved 26 nineth-grade learners in Tshwane North District secondary schools in Gauteng Province. Data collection was based on learners' written work (a questionnaire) and analysing the results of the administered test. Data was analysed to detect the language difficulties that learners' face when translating and solving mathematical word problems. The analysis process involved developing initial insights, coding, interpreting, and drawing conclusions to determine whether there is a connection between language proficiency and solving mathematical word problems. Results: The study showed that learners face difficulties in mathematical processes such as inadequate language comprehension when translating words into mathmatical symbols. It also revealed that there is a strong connection between vocabulary knowledge and word problem solving, resulting in learning challenges related to understanding the meaning associated with mathmatical word problems. Conclusions: Evidence from the word problem test for Grade 9 learners revealed that mathematical vocabulary and syntactic features are the main factors causing difficulties in understanding and solving mathmatical word problems.

The problem of the study was to analyze the results of university biology education students as a case study against gender and performance and empirically determine the implications of the findings to countries, such as Nigeria, South Africa and the rest of the world. The study made use of all the 344 students in the levels from 100 to 400 of B.Sc.Ed. (Hons) (Biology Education Bachelor of Science Education (Honors)) students in the research university.

There is a huge challenge of high failure rate in physical science across the world and South Africa, in particular at the high school level in recent times. This is in spite of the fact that both the educators and learners go to schools almost on daily basis perhaps doing the same thing in the same way and manner and achieving the same level or less quality results annually. The main objective of this research was to investigate beyond the usual approaches of teaching chemistry by the educators in order to determine ways and practices that can positively influence the educators' teaching efforts and foster increased pass rate and quality of passes in Physical Sciences. Twenty-seven and 33 learners in their non-randomized intact classes were involved in the control and intervention classes respectively in two different high schools believed to have always underperformed at matriculation examinations in a suburb of Pretoria. The research made use of active learning model and a special form of cooperative learning strategy nick-named "goat and sheep method" with extra activities including animation to teach the experimental class and compared learners' performances with those of the control group that were taught the usual way. It was found out that upward of 87% of learners in the intervention class showed remarkably improved pass rate in quantity and quality in the post-test. Also, the topics taught became more learner-friendly and the educator achieved higher confidence and proficiency in dealing with the subject. Proper application of the teaching method described in this study enhances chemistry educators' and learners' performances anywhere.

The study investigated the comparative effects of Selvaratnam, & Fraser (1982) and Ashmore et al. (1979) problem-solving instructional strategies on Advanced Level students' achievement in Stoichiometry. The quasi-experimental design with a nonequivalent comparison group consisting of pre-and post-test measures was utilized in the study. The participants were 525 Advanced level chemistry learners drawn from 8 high schools from Gweru district. Data were collected using standardized achievement Tests in stoichiometry. The problem-solving instruction was implemented in four experimental schools while the remaining four control schools were taught using the conventional lecture method. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to analyze data. The findings indicated a statistical significant difference in the performance of students taught using the two problem-solving strategies and those taught using the conventional method. The Scheffe's post-hoc test indicated that students taught using the Ashmore et al. (1979) problem-solving instructional strategy performed significantly better than those taught with the Selvaratnam & Fraser problem-solving strategy. Furthermore, it was also found that the performance of students in the experimental group was not influenced by gender. Chemistry teachers are therefore strongly recommended to use problem-solving instructional strategies in their classes to improve the abilities of learners in solving stoichiometry problems.

The study sought to find out difficulties encountered by high school chemistry students when solving stoichiometric problems and how these could be overcome by using a problemsolving approach. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design. 485 participants drawn from 8 highs schools in a local education district in Zimbabwe participated in the study. A validated stoichiometry achievement test was used to collect data at pre-test and post-test stages. The researchers also prepared a difficulty identification index to analyse the difficulties encountered by students. Quantitative data was analysed using inferential statistics and ANCOVA. From the findings, the difficulties identified were lack of understanding of the mole concept, inability to balance chemical equations, use of inconsistent stoichiometric relationships, identifying the limiting reagent, determination of theoretical yields and identification of substances in excess. The study also found that the use of problem-solving instruction as effective in remedying the identified difficulties in comparison to the conventional lecture method. It was strongly recommended that chemistry educators should analyse and understand student difficulties if they are to assist the learners to become confident and efficient problem solvers. Furthermore chemistry educators should implement the problem-solving pedagogical technique as a means of addressing the difficulties students have in stoichiometry problem-solving.

To many, the teaching and learning of science is only achievable in the classroom and the laboratory in some cases. This notion has made many school learners and educators to abandon the teaching and learning of science or doing it haphazardly complaining that they lack the material and human resources. This paper examined the teaching of Saponification reactions in Organic Chemistry to undergraduates using special ODL strategies outside the classroom and organised laboratories. The strategies used are Skype technology and animation. The teaching involved both theory and practice and on evaluation, the learners proved to be as competent as if they taught in contact sessions. The study showed that sciences such as life science, physical science and related disciplines can be effectively taught and learnt through the ODL approach in schools, particularly at the University level.

The purpose of this research was to investigate specific areas of difficulty for undergraduate University students in Organic Chemistry and to identify the sources of difficulty for Chemistry students in order to scientifically determine ways of improvement. The study was conducted in three years with 177 first year Chemistry students and 4 Organic Chemistry lecturers who have minimum five years teaching experience. Document analysis of examination scripts of 177 Chemistry students based on 54 Organic Chemistry questions, interviews on sampled Chemistry students, and questionnaires administered on all the 177 Chemistry students as well as the 4 Organic Chemistry lecturers were analysed. The Chemistry teachers’ questionnaire investigated the teachers’ perceptions about teaching Organic Chemistry in terms of any difficult topics, to identify the sources of difficulty, and to identify possible ways of improvement. The document analysis was conducted to assess students’ achievement and ...

Teachers and lecturers continue to grapple with the best ways to teach and learn Science and Technology using current information and communication technologies (ICT). This paper presents an introductory process of developing web-based module for technology teacher education students using Web-CT and animation tools for the effective teaching of electro-chemistry that has remained a problem to Natural Science educators in South Africa. Two research questions: how can a web-based learning module be developed to enhance technology education? And what necessary steps can be practically taken in the use of animation to enhance the work of Natural Science educators? were addressed. One main hypothesis: `the use of mixed and added realities involving the development of Web-based learning module and animation enhances the performance of technology and Natural Science educators` was tested. The design was a quasi experimental type of non-equivalent pre- and post-tests control groups and the...

This paper is a report of research carried out in the United Kingdom, Nigeria and South Africa involving a total of 146 participants. It has become an open cry all over South Africa about the deplorable Physical science matriculation results since the recent years raising such key issues as: inadequate content knowledge acquisition among the educators, deficiency in pedagogical approaches, among others as reasons for the registered poor performance of both educators and learners in Physical science. The study aimed at using the Sandwich programme as one way of solving the observed problems and also improve the quantity and quality of Chemistry educators in the Country given the importance of the learning area in the development of science and technology and hence the economy of any nation. The study employed a mixed method approach involving a Questionnaire on the Application and Effectiveness of Sandwich Programmes for the Improvement of Chemistry Teaching (QAESPICT) and an Intervi...

This research paper was designed to appraise students' weaknesses and strengths in biology in Ughelli metropolis in Nigeria. Three research Hypotheses were raised to include: there is no significant relationship between the shortage of biology teachers and students' weaknesses and strengths in biology; there is no significant relationship between the condition of biology laboratory facilities and students' weaknesses in biology. 164 SS II Biology student and six (6) Biology Teachers were used as sample from six (6) schools (3 public and private respectively). 20-Item questionnaire was used for collecting data. Spearmans' Rank order correlation coefficient (rho) was used to analyze the data. Among the major findings, is that: There is a strong correlation between shortage of biology teachers and students' weakness in Biology; there is also a strong correlation between the state or condition Biology laboratory facilities and students` level of achievement in Biology. The paper fully discussed the implications of the results of this study to the future of Biology in particular and Science education in general.

This paper is part of a larger study to investigate ‘The impact of a constructivist approach to learning on physical sciences students’ comprehension of electrochemistry concepts’ in the Ximhungwe circuit of the Bohlabela district in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. The study explored the impact of using a constructivist type of teaching intervention – collaboration combined with conceptual change texts, otherwise called conceptual change teaching strategy (CCTS) on students in high achieving schools (HAS) in their comprehension of electrochemistry concepts. The study utilized non-equivalent pretest and posttest control group quasi-experimental research design . The theoretical framework for this study was based on Vygotsky’s social constructivism theory, which he defines as a sociological theory of knowledge that applies the general philosophy of constructivism into social settings. A sample of 51 12 th grade physical sciences students from two high achieving public schools...