Connectivism as a strategy to support progressed Mathematics learners through Information Communication Technologies

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 viii although there are challenges such as resource distribution among participants, the benefits outweigh the challenges.