Abstract:
The introduction of progression policy, which prohibits the repetition of a grade to more
than once within each of the four phases of Basic Education, was enforced in the Further
Education and Training (FET) phase in 2013. The first group of progressed learners to
write their National Senior Examination was in 2014. There have been conflicting views
from various stakeholders within the education sector on the benefits and challenges of
progression policy.
What studies do not address, are appropriate strategies that could be applied to support
the progressed learners in Mathematics. This study was a comparative case study which
investigated how connectivism can be used to support progressed learners using
Information Communication Technologies (ICTs). The study aimed to describe the types
of digital networks teachers use to support progressed learners, their impact and
effectiveness, to track their performance and outline both the benefits and challenges of
using connectivism as a support strategy for progressed learners, to compare with the
existing strategies which are not necessarily technological used to support progressed
learners and to create a framework which could be used to support progressed learners
within a connectivism ideology.
Data collection strategies used were semi-structured interviews, questionnaires and
documentations such as lesson plans, progression tracking tools and support policies.
The study population was sixteen FET Mathematics educators from five secondary
schools in Ekurhuleni North district in circuit 4. Data analysis was done through Atlas ti
and presented in a descriptive and graphical way.
The findings of this study indicated that connectivism is a digital age theory, which when
incorporated into teaching and learning, becomes one of the most effective support tools
for progressed learners. The findings further indicated that ICTs within networks makes
teaching and learning more learner centred, improves participation, learner attainment
and pass rate. The findings also revealed that connectivism became the most critical way
of learning not only as a support strategy, but the most effective way for remote learning
and continuous learning. Learners are able to learn at their own pace, at their most
convenient set-up and they manage and control what they learn, how they learn, with
whom they learn and what information they require. The findings further indicated that
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although there are challenges such as resource distribution among participants, the
benefits outweigh the challenges.
