UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND, JOHANNESBURG

Mathematics for teaching thrust


Coordinator: Jill Adler
Office: M27
Phone: 011 7173413
Jill.Adler@wits.ac.za
Personal webpage

Jill Adler is Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg South Africa, and Chair of Mathematics Education at King?s College, London. Jill is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) and Chairperson of the ASSAf Committee on Science Education.

Jill has three inter-related research interests: teaching mathematics in multilingual classrooms; professional development of mathematics teachers; and mathematical work of teaching, all of which are elaborated through publications. The research on teaching mathematics in multilingual classrooms began in 1991, and was the subject of her PhD dissertation, and has been published as a book. Between 1996 and 1999, she directed a larger, long term, inter-disciplinary and collaborative project that tracked the learning of mathematics, science and English language teachers enrolled in a formalised in-service professional development programme. The project tracked 25 teachers over three years in order to describe and explain their take-up from various aspects of the development programme, and included a focus on take-up of language practices like code-switching. This too led to a book that reports on the breadth and depth of the project. These two projects, situated as they were in a transforming educational sector in South Africa, coupled with growing practical knowledge across diverse contexts led to an understanding that the mathematical work of teaching remains under-described, thwarting attempts to improve teaching through strategic teacher education programmes. Her current work is geared to enabling this description, and involves studying the production of mathematics for teaching in sites of mathematics teacher education practice, as well as studying mathematics teaching practices (and so the mathematical work this entails) across diverse contexts of teaching in South Africa, Southern Africa and more recently in the United Kingdom.

Jill s interests in teaching and research in mathematics education have been supplemented by organisational work at national and international level. In the early 1990s she held an executive position in the Southern African Mathematics and Science Research Association. Between 1994 and 1998 she was on the International Committee for PME, and in 2002 was elected to a four-year term as Vice President of ICMI. She also serves on the editorial boards of a number of international journals in mathematics education.



PhD fellow: Lynn Bowie
Office: M22
Phone: 011 7173412
Lynn.Bowie@wits.ac.za 		Lynn graduated with a BSc(Hons) in mathematics at UCT. She then did her teachers diploma. She taught for 10 years in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at UCT. During this time she got her MSc from UCT and an MEd in mathematics education from Georgia State University. Her research interest at UCT were in calculus teaching and learning.
She has authored textbooks in Mathematical Literacy and Mathematics for the FET level and done materials development and research work in vocational training and youth development. Her current interest is in mathematical knowledge for teaching and, in particular, in what has come to be constituted as school geometry in South Africa and the implications in this for teacher development.


PhD fellow: Patricia Nalube
Office: M20
Phone:
Patricia.Nalube@wits.ac.za

Patricia was initially a secondary school mathematics teacher in Zambia before joining the University of Zambia as a mathematics teacher educator. She holds a Masters in Science Education from Wits University in South Africa, a Bachelor of Science with Education from the University of Zambia, a Diploma in mathematics teacher education from Copperbelt College of Education in Zambia. Her area of interest is in mathematics teacher education and what it means for teaching mathematics in schools. She has since embarked on a PhD study entitled ?Student teachers learning mathematics for teaching: learner thinking and sense making in algebra?. The study will therefore explore and explain what and how mathematics student teachers in Zambia are prepared to participate in the discourse of and about engaging with learner mathematical thinking in general, and algebra in particular. That is, what are the intentions of the mathematics teacher education curriculum in relation to the discourse? What mathematical knowledge for teaching secondary school algebra do student teachers know and are able to enact as they participate in the discourse? The findings of this study will contribute to the already existing knowledge on Mathematics for Teaching and wider research in mathematics education.


EVENTS: 2009
For more details on these events please contact Samantha Govender (011 7173414)

What is Mathematics Paper 3 for?

Panel discussion: Wednesday 24th June 2009, 3pm ? 5pm

Venue: Staff room, Bohlaleng block, Wits Education Campus

Panel Discussion 24th June, 3pm ? 5pm. Tea will be served from 2:30pm

When the new FET curriculum for Mathematics was implemented in 2006, certain sections were designated as optional and examined separately in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations in 2008 as Mathematics Paper 3. The Department of Education announced this year that the optional status of Paper 3 is to remain. Concerns emerging from interim first year results in Mathematics and related courses in the Universities have sparked interest in Paper 3 for students entering mathematics-related degrees and diplomas. As with many issues around the new NSC Mathematics examinations, the Paper 3 issue provoked some heated discussions. We believe that more light (and less heat) can be generated through bringing together various interest groups so that we may understand ranging needs and challenges. We all need to be able to make informed choices, choices that are both mathematically and educationally sound. The questions for this panel are thus:

What is Mathematics Paper 3 for?

Should all/some learners and schools be encouraged to offer Paper 3?

Should universities make Mathematics Paper 3 a requirement for entry to mathematics-related degrees?

The Mathematics for Teaching Thrust in the Marang Centre has organised a panel discussion to throw light on the issues around Paper 3, from various perspectives, particularly:

the National Department of Education

Practicing teachers

The university sector

The four panellists will offer brief and informative presentations in the first hour. The second hour is for discussion with the intent of increasing our collective understanding of concerns and interests.

Please join us and add your perspective into the discussion

Panel chair: Professor Jill Adler, Chair of Mathematics Education, Wits University and Kings College London

Panellists:

Ms Penny Vinjevold, DDG: Further Education and Training in the National Department of Education.

Ms Lerato Mathenjwa, Mathematics teacher, S.G.Mafaesa Secondary School.

Dr Belinda Huntley, School of Mathematics, Wits University.

Mr Graeme Evans, Assessment Specialist with responsibility for Mathematics, IEB.

Please RSVP to Samantha Govender Samantha.Govender@wits.ac.za 011 7173414

AIMS AND CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS

The central concern of the thrust?s research is Mathematics for Teaching (MfT): what it is, how it is constituted across varying sites of practice, and why this is so. Our major empirical focus is MfT as it is constituted in mathematics teacher education. This is being complemented by smaller empirical studies of MfT in school mathematics practice. The goal is that together these will enable the production of a framework for the development of MfT in teacher education i.e. a systematically informed basis for intervention into the content preparation and development of mathematics teachers.

The bulk of the research in this thrust is undertaken under the auspices of the QUANTUM research project. To read more about this project click here.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
A list of available publication, some of which are available for downloading can be found here