Meeting 21st century challenges in Grade 6 Mathematics education

Abstract

With South Africa being ranked among the lowest of the countries participating in consecutive PIRLS studies, South African mathematics teachers are left frustrated and demotivated in their failed attempts to sufficiently improve the learning quality in mathematics education. As a teacher in Grade 6 mathematics education, I share the experiences of my colleagues in several domains, which includes the learners’ relatively poor general mathematics performance and also a serious decline in their general moral behaviour (i.e., disrespect towards others and their teachers). This study has been designed to improve the quality of my own Grade 6 mathematics professional education practice. The questions that I have explored in this study is how the Grade 6 CAPS curriculum is instrumental in enhancing the mathematics learning quality, the challenging demands of the 21st century that Grade 6 learners will have to resolve and how I can improve the quality of my Grade 6 mathematics education practice. The study follows an interpretive qualitative action research approach that focuses on the teacher confronting learners with 21st century real life challenges, which they need to resolve themselves through the professional practice of facilitating learning in an authentic and holistic way. This is where the “Five minds for the future” (disciplined, synthesising, creating, respectful, ethical) (Gardner, 2008) and the factors responsible for the integrity of all inseperable constituents of human individuality, i.e. “body, mind, soul and spirit, are simultaneously activated” (Dimitrov & Korotkich, 2002, p 42). The Professional practice of facilitating learning, with its purpose of initiating and maintaining learning as well as ensuring the highest possible quality of learning outcome, proved to be much more challenging than anticipated. The action research approach, though, allowed for its practical implementation and becoming increasingly familiar with its demands. Within the limited experience of this study, my restricted - attempts at executing the particular, purposeful, facilitating of learning functions had my learners much more engaged in the educational event of venturing into resolving the real life challenges themselves. Although I might not have fully taken advantage of them, the opportunities for strengthening the moral foundation of education is inevitably integrated in the professional practice of facilitating learning – that which I am now in pursuit of.