MATHS AND SCIENCE FOR TEACHERS AND LEARNERS: UNIVERSITY OF STELLENBOSCH, INSTITUTE FOR MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE TEACHING
The MATHS AND SCIENCE FOR TEACHERS AND LEARNERS project is run by the Institute for Mathematics and Science Teaching (IMSTUS) at Stellenbosch University.
The project is the largest in the SEEDS consortium (a total of R25m, 16.7% of SEEDS funding, and 30% in the focus area) It comprises three initiatives:
The Sciences and Mathematics Initiative for Learners and Educators project (SMILES), a teacher intervention in primary and secondary schools in the Kraaifontein, Paarl and Stellenbosch areas
The Science and Mathematics Bridging Programme (SciMathUS) – a post-matric programme at the University of Stellenbosch (US) that affords talented learners the opportunity of qualifying for mainstream higher education
The Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE) in Mathematics, a 2-year in-service training programme for Mathematics teachers
SMILES
The SMILES project is an Intermediate and Senior Phase teacher in-service training classroom-based intervention in five subjects across the GET and FET levels – in Physical Science, Life Science, Natural Science, Mathematics and Maths Literacy. The intervention runs in five secondary schools in the Kraaifontein, Paarl and Stellenbosch areas and 10 of their primary feeder schools and has involved 88 teachers to date.
SMILES develops teachers’ understanding as well as their skills in teaching the curriculum. The initiative includes content training of the curriculum (teachers register for US Short courses), classroom visits where facilitators co-teach with the educator, science club facilitation and parent evening input. Work that is covered during the training sessions is followed up by the facilitators during the classroom visits: “Our model is like this ... we get into the classes, we help them to teach, we co-teach, we watch them teach. We give them feedback. And then we workshop all the stuff that the teachers are meant to teach the next term. After the workshops we ask them why they are not doing something that we have done with them.”
The classroom intervention-based approach adopted by SMILES differed fundamentally from that of MSEP: “MSEP did the research first and then decided what was needed. We believed we had a good idea what the teachers needed, then collaborated with them, and our research is based on this. We appointed facilitators for every subject in every school.”
Practical classroom-based support to teachers faced with large classes where classroom management and discipline are often key concerns are a central focus of the SMILES programme:
“We have a huge focus on classroom-based support. We have had varying success with our approach. Half of the teachers won't welcome you. You have to build relationships, and confidence. The facilitators have to be quite a special. They have an amazing set of skills including in classroom practice. Very often they are based in the faculties in the schools. There is a competitive element of the programme that works, built around trust. Our facilitators have very different sets of skills: there is a lot of co- teaching, development of model lessons, taking hands and helping with lesson plans in other words, peer support. Also they provide planning and practical support, assist with setting exam papers which are common to all the schools. SMILES facilitators try to get teachers to experience the power of a community of practice.”
Relationship building is critical, something SMILES feels it is succeeding with because of their approach:
“We are not there with a check board”
“We are there to help. Some teachers didn’t want us but they saw we are not there on a witch hunt”
“No formal lectures”
“Very practical”
“In our first year we just built relationships. After six months there was not an issue with access”
In addition to classroom-based support for teachers, SMILES facilitators also model lessons in any subject to the top forty learners in each grade in every participating school so that learners “have a direct experience of the programme”; this is also seen as an opportunity for SMILES to “understand the way in which the learners respond.”
The project utilises IMSTUS’s Maths Learning materials which are considered highly effective and innovative: “We have developed maths learning materials over many years, in so-called 'Realistic Maths Education'; we work with people in the Netherlands. Using practical problems, in which maths is required to find solutions.”
In the physical sciences and life sciences, SMILES uses the available textbooks. In the natural sciences XX and XX.
A lot of SEEDS funding went into building up the science infrastructure and purchasing FET science kits for schools classrooms. SEEDS funding also helps fund SMILES’s exposure programme to life sciences for example to the Tygerberg medical facility, Iziko Museum, Kirstenbosch and Sutherland SALT array: “Township kids don't see anything like this during their school careers: it’s a bit expensive, but SEEDS funding helped us."
SMILES have found Systemic Testing to be of benefit in establishing the quality baseline especially in primary schools: "The problem in primary schools was no baseline to monitor the quality of teaching, and then they started with this testing. Teachers realised they were way below standard and this helped our facilitators to gain entry with teachers who realised that there was a lot of room for improvement. Our facilitators then were able to help teachers give students an idea of what to expect in the tests and in our schools the student's performance has increased considerably.”
SMILES impact?
“I don’t know. Some teachers have improved. Some haven't. There is a glimmer. We get good feedback on the workshops. If you wanted a high impact on the student marks then we would just teach them ourselves.”
“Some schools are more receptive than others. These schools have exceptionally strong leadership, which makes them makes them good to work with. There is a different leadership styles in each and issues in each school. One school, the principle puts student teachers in to attend the classes. In Kayamandi the poverty is incredible but they have good teachers. In Luckhoff, the worst of the lot, very little buy-in.”
“We have given each school an FET demo kit. Most schools have a lab, but they don't use it!”
Nonetheless many of the schools have improved significantly in national and provincial Systemic Testing in subjects related to maths and science and the provincial department has recognised these achievements.
One of the major challenges is how to monitor success. Participating teachers are not evaluated in any formal way but they do take a SMILES self-assessment test. Learners are not assessed:
"We don't monitor any of the learners since there are too many extraneous contributions, for example, because of the interventions the exam papers get better so we raise the standards. It's very difficult to give a quantitative idea what's going on in the schools. Improvements in some schools are evident, in some cases considerable but it’s very dangerous since these improvements might be related to countrywide changes."
“We have changed attitudes tremendously. We know how things have changed. But they are still not teaching like we would like them to teach. They still teach like they were taught.”
The school context has emerged as a critical factor to success: “Initially, the WCED and the District provided SMILES with a list of Dinaledi schools in Khayelitsha to work in. The choices were so bad. They were not functioning and we couldn’t work in those schools. So now we go to a number of schools ourselves and ask them to motivate why we should work with them. Our five secondary schools are a mix of two township schools and three rural coloured and African schools in the Stellenbosch, Paarl, and Brackenfell area. “
Many additional challenges and obstacles to the success of programme were identified, including:
“Teachers say it's not us, it's the learners.”
“Overcoming teacher’s animosity, fear and anxiety on facilitators’ visiting their classrooms”
“Teachers challenges/fears in implementing the new curriculum”
“Building positive trusting relationships”
“Teachers’ lack of focus on practical work in the classroom”
“Overcoming big gaps in coverage of subject cuts between the GET and FET phases, especially Grades 8 and 9 in preparation for transition to senior phase in Grade 10”
“Teachers involvement in other school and department projects”
State of school laboratories for practical science lessons
High teacher turn-over in subjects science and maths
Teacher unavailability for after-school training
Teachers’ involvement/clash with extra-murals, including Saturdays
“Educator’s curriculum knowledge and didactic skills in large classes”
“Most educators teach recipes for doing mathematics without concept development. Educators need to make a paradigm shift in their approach to the teaching and learning of Mathematical skills”
“By focussing on five subjects in the schools only, the other teachers are envious”
“These excluded teachers had to take up the burden of our teachers when they are out of school. This is now disappeared with the WCED ruling on taking teachers out of school. We now take them from Friday afternoon, and Saturdays. We also took them over exam time before; that is now also stopping.”
“Timing, that is, teachers won't attend workshops. We had full workshops when they could come during work hours.”
Language issues: "Enable maths and science teachers to treat the language issues in the classroom. Our facilitators try to get teachers to teach in English as well, as required but communication in the class is in Xhosa .You must get teachers to change this. This is a huge problem. We must now start on the foundation phase and we must help teachers to do this right through the intermediate phase.
"There is not enough of a link between pre-service and in-service training at the University"
Unions: “Unions will say ‘you go do the PRP’... but the teachers say 'we don't want to have to do further qualifications to keep our jobs'. “
“Our workshops are all short-course, you receive a certificate of competence, if you hand in the assignments, but this means nothing to the teachers if the government won’t recognise continuous development points.”
SMILES experience is that is ineffective working in schools where there is not a well-established management structure because it is a waste in literal terms. However, following selection, SMILES still sees a need to work with teachers and the school managers to try and change the school culture – a whole school approach: "We try to maintain very close relations with the principals and work very closely with the school management. They must also be the targets of school improvement.”
Further, SMILES sees the importance of ensuring early onset and continuity of quality learning and teaching, especially in maths and science: “All these initiatives should start or begin in pre-school and intermediate level. The damage would already be done by the time they get to the senior phase.”
SMILES is planning to expand its involvement with whole school development post-SEEDS and include in its programme a foundation phase intervention, language and school leadership and management.
District officials are generally positive about the SMILES programme. However particularly District Curriculum Advisors show little enthusiasm in actually collaborating:
"We tried to collaborate closely with the curriculum advisers. This doesn't materialise. Curriculum advisers are burdened with administrative work in the subjects like science and maths. They are not involved in day-to-day teaching, what takes place in the classroom. So we do what the curriculum advisors are supposed to do. They are not directly involved [but] they are pleased for us to go ahead. In terms of sustainability, they should be doing this."
"We are doing what government should be doing. They just welcomed us. There is no issue. The district welcomed us. They didn't have the time to do this. One guy has 150 schools. We are filling a small gap."
Turning to the future, SMILES is unsure whether the programme may be rolled-out elsewhere or serve as a model, even given a positive and enabling environment:
"We have been asked about our model? Are you ready for roll-out? Is this is the correct model? In our research workshops we have debated this. I think there are certain elements that are essential, like classroom involvement, and that's a very time-consuming element. Who would consume our model? We think maybe underperforming school districts, we can approach them and say, we have a programme, and we can train your facilitators, etc. But the one thing you must do is instil enthusiasm in the school environment. You cannot assume this. It's very difficult. But I'm positive that this model can be transferred to other environments."
SMILES and collaboration/partnerships within SEEDS?
"There's not much sharing in the SEEDS Consortium"
"There is some communication or let’s call it interaction with UCT, but not sharing"; “SCIFEST AFRICA helps mostly in the primary schools and we envisage some collaboration with EMEP on school Science Clubs but only once we have got off the ground."
- "There is little work on the Intermediate Phase in SEEDS Consortium - CMGE is working in the intermediate phase of multigrade but not in maths and science." SciMathUS
SciMathUS is a programme of IMSTUS that targets severe disadvantage amongst African, black students. It is a Flagship programme of the US, and IMSTUS’s largest programme, (40% of total budget). It was started in 2001 in response to the university’s need for black student undergraduates, particularly in STEM degree programmes.
It is a year-long school-university bridging programme offering talented disadvantaged black students an opportunity to improve their Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Accounting marks. SciMathUS overcomes learning gaps in students Grade 12 learning in these subjects by applying a hybrid collaborative-learning and problem-based method in which “both the students and the educators explore and find solutions to the concepts in a negotiated and collaborative way”. The programme was nominated for the Impumelelo Award in 2009.
The project motivation lies in the fact that many more disadvantaged black students are interested in university studies than are actually accepted, including in STEM-related fields of study. However, genuinely talented students from underprivileged backgrounds who are failing to meet the formal university admissions programme could do so once they have participated in an appropriate and effective bridging programme, such as SciMathUS. SciMathUS does not guarantee university admission to its students: they must still apply and be formally admitted to the university.
The student selection process is considered the most important aspect of the programme:
“We feel that we don't want is to select them only to improve their maths and science marks. So we select them to be successful at university. You must try and identify students with potential, motivation, and students severely disadvantaged by the system. Our selection process will spend a lot of energy to get the students background, school, home and personal circumstances. We follow an objective process. Students are invited to apply. We get about 500 applications…. Finding students who might be interested is quite a challenge. We use the university application process and the 'No' letters and we invite students to an interview.”
The minimum requirement is 30% in NSC Mathematics and Science.
Students with Maths Literacy are also accepted but must complete the subject Mathematics: “Many Western Cape students are streamed by doing maths literacy. These students can only go into the Arts, but any Science field is closed to them. Even Law and Economic Management Sciences are closed to them. We take in students who do maths literacy; must do the whole 3-year Mathematics and Science curriculum, in the one year, and then they must write the NSC.”
Half the cohort of 100 students comes from the Stellenbosch area; student food, accommodation, transport, textbooks, and registration and course fees are all paid for by the programme.
Programme activities are formally structured and timetabled. Each consists of formal guided learning in the mornings (from 08h00 until 13h00): in the afternoons (from 13h00 until 17h00) students take ownership of their own learning. “This flexibility allows the facilitators an opportunity to either have one-on-one sessions with struggling students or to conduct a problem based exercise that requires more than the hour that is provided for each lesson.”
Class attendance is mandatory. Subjects offered include Physical Sciences (20 hrs per cycle), Accounting (16 hrs per), Introduction to Economics (4 hrs), Computer Literacy (4 hrs), and Critical Thinking and Language Skills (8 hrs).
Students’ academic progress is reported quarterly with marks being accumulated via continuous assessment marks which are made up of tests, assignments, class projects etc. Students’ mid-year examination and the mid-year results are a combination of the examination marks and the continuous assessment marks of the term. The students write the National Senior Certificate examination (in Mathematics and Physical Science) at the end of the academic year. Accounting examinations are set within the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences.
The uniqueness of SciMathUS’s method and its potential for more widespread use and application in the larger FET sector lies, according to IMSTUS, in its evolution of its Problem Based Approach/Model which combines didactic and collaborative elements. The SciMathUS ‘model’ effectively addresses gaps in students’ formal skills and content knowledge in addition to their confidence and abilities to work and function collaboratively and socially irrespective of their backgrounds:
“In the group of 100 students we have students with different strengths and weaknesses. We allow the students to present their work in class either as individuals or as a group. The presenting group then allows time for questions and debate from other class members. This is a very interesting activity where each learner tries to explain his/her understanding of the method according to the way he/she was taught at school. The class has to come to an amicable decision which the facilitator will neither agree nor dispute. S/he has to be satisfied with the process of explanation they are giving that will allow them to apply the methods in future.” [Quarterly Report, July 2011]
Accordingly, SciMathUS adopts a developmental attitude towards the drive for success in the programme:
“Success is not 100%: you must understand that the university takes the first layer. The extended degree programme takes the next layer. We take the third, lowest layer. In our programme therefore we have a counselling element – provided by our project manager who is an educational psychologist; we also can use the university's psychological services.
“We also pay a lot of attention to study and thinking skills and student personal development and ways of communication to develop the student as a whole person.”
“Each year is unique; no one year can ever be measured against the other. This means that even though we learn from each cohort of students, challenges continue to manifest themselves in different structures. We therefore do not have any expectation on any group of learners that we take, but we allow ourselves to be part of the learning process together with the students. Now that we have explored the research component within the programme it is exciting to share the literature review and experiences of other bridging programmes. We are excited because we believe that we are part of a bigger audience that strives to touch the lives of students who had otherwise lost all hope of academic excellence as a result of the systems’ inability to reach the student’s level of understanding.” [Quarterly Report, July 2011]
Nevertheless, SciMathUS can point to success in various elements of the programmes stated outcomes. In the actual one-year bridging programme, participating students increased their performance in their NSC mathematics and science examination by an average of 15 percentage points and some by as much as 30 points. In terms of programme completion rates success varies year-on-year: there was a 25% drop out rate in 2009/2010 intake with 75 of the 100 students graduating which was attributed to the new NCS curriculum (75% success completion rate). In terms of students longitudinal performance at university level there is a drop-out rate of 30% amongst SciMathUS students. This appears to be a slightly better rate than that of non-participating students at the university.
The programme faces a number of challenges:
“We receive no government subsidy since the government doesn't like pre-programme initiatives, preferring to fund extended degree programmes instead.”
Shortage of funding for the students on the programme
“SciMathUS students can go to any university, not just US; others go to technicons or do diploma course. Many others take a gap year or years, however mainly for financial reasons.”
The language of instruction [Afrikaans] is often a consideration limiting student intake.
“We are now in conversation with the university to see if we can get rid of the Grade 12 (NSC) examinations and rather have an internal examination. Lecturer's feel that they can do a much better job of preparing the students for university.”
“There is a lot of pressure on us in the programme to raise quality and better prepare students”
“SciMathUS should interact more with the broader University faculty. We presented to all faculties but must say their response has not been great... we have been working too much in isolation in so far as our university is concerned.”
Too few and inappropriately located venues within the University - “As much as we appreciate this allocation it poses a challenge when we want to have a group session with problem-based exercises. The lecturers now have to run between two distant buildings to monitor and evaluate progress made by students at specific intervals of the process.”
SciMathUS programme links with other SEEDS partners is limited. Reasons advanced include:
“Our whole orientation is in SC maths. WE have a very focused programme and focused target. It’s difficult for us to link to other SEEDS components.”
“There is not another programme in the seeds Consortium on that level of SciMathUS; you must partner with the closest fit. But bridging in South Africa, the idea is not very popular. Extended degree programmes are popular with because of the government funding provided. We feel very strongly that there should be space for both, because the students we take into our programmes would otherwise not have had the opportunity to qualify, even to start at University. This is because they cannot enter university with the marks they had. So when we have a student going through the programme and obtaining a degree, this would not have been possible in any other way. So in that way, we cater for students who would never have got here. We have five doctors, five engineers, accountants etc who qualified through the programme.”
The IMSTUS ACE in Mathematics is a 2 year in-service training programme for Mathematics teachers from 3 different phases. The project goal is to improve the content knowledge of the enrolled teachers, to train them as subject leaders in their field and to establish networks of support among the teachers in their provinces.
The programme makes use of a blended learning approach which combines face-to-face contact, self study and e-learning (interactive telematic sessions and discussions on a web-based programme management system).
The problem that the ACE in Mathematics addresses directly is the difficulty that many INSET teachers who teach maths face in improving or obtaining their maths qualifications without having to attend a residential programme at an FET institution.
The ACE in Mathematics is a new national SAQA accredited programme which builds on elements of IMSTUS’s campus-based Diploma in Education that targeted Western Cape teachers who were qualified to teach but not in the subjects Mathematics or Physical Science.
The ACE was started in 2009 with 49 teachers enrolling; of this group, 21 graduated in 2010, 1 continued in 2011 and 11 are repeating modules at own cost. 16 withdrew due to variety of reasons, the main one being the workload involved in teaching and studying. In 2010 new student numbers climbed to 42 dropping back to 29 in 2011. The ACE is now offered in four provinces. The ACE is also offered to teachers who participate in the programmes offered by the African Institute for Mathematical Service’s Schools Enrichment Centre based in Muizenberg, Western Cape with whom IMSTU collaborates.
This new ACE in Mathematics is clearly an important innovation and according to IMSTUS introduces an effective new national in-service model for teachers in rural schools with is combination of contact/face-to-face sessions with e-learning and telematics to create a vital and virtual community of practice using the internet and mobile phones essential to sustained impact on classroom practice: "I think that this format that we follow with ACE, blended learning, is the format of the future. If you want to train teachers in South Africa, then you must do it this way. Without it is impossible to get to the teachers out there. This model has been presented to national and international (African) audiences at conferences in South Africa and Zambia.”
The US’s web-based programme management system, Moodle, introduced in 2010, is the platform from which IMSTUS launched its innovative new programme: "Our experience is that to learn new learning methods you need to get out of isolation. That’s where Moodle comes in. The way Moodle is used has developed quite significantly over the past two years and is the basis of our ongoing efforts to build a functional distance learning in-service programme with a sound community-of-practice element.”
The major challenge facing the IMSTUS ACE in Mathematics is financial - "The problem of payment of subsidies by both government and University is ongoing."
It has proved difficult to secure funding for 2012 as there is much uncertainty around the future of the ACE qualification. Within the Western Cape the WCED has decided to no longer provide bursaries for ACE’s. This means other provinces need to be approached for funded participants.
Unfortunately the WCED’s alternative proposal to fund teachers taking Short Courses – essentially the ACE offered in compact packages - has also not yet come to fruition, posing a very real threat to the programmes continued financial and longer term viability. Further, there is both a two-year delay in payment of the government subsidy to the university and some dispute as to on-payment of this subsidy payment to IMSTUS by US.
The entire ACE in Mathematics is in jeopardy in the Western Cape and there are great concerns for its ongoing survival in the current phase of national reform in teacher professional development:
“We would love to continue, but without funding we cannot do it. There's no funding from the University, or the Western Cape Education Department. To do it, you must go to the other provincial departments. We have tried very hard at this stage. The Western Cape called a meeting and told us that they would support short-courses. This is an alternative to the ACE. But we feel that it doesn't have the same cumulative effect of a two-year continuous programme of build-up and commitment by the students and so on. They wanted us to add an evaluative component to the short courses, but you still wouldn't have this impact. We are looking for the funding of this gap until the new policy is passed. The other provinces are not so strict and have continued to fund this ACE. It's a very frustrating situation to have developed this kind of training, blended learning, it has been a huge amount of input in terms of material development, creating new structures etc and I am very concerned that this will come to an end and I will lose my staff. It's been a very risky business. As a result the SEEDS money is no longer 'seed money', which it was supposed to be.”
SEEDS’s ongoing funding linked to a positive resolution of the on-payment by the US of government subsidies are the only elements standing between the survival of this in-service innovation and its dissolution.
