The level of metacognitive awareness of pre-service mathematics teachers at a higher education institutions

dc.contributor.advisorJunqueira, K. E.en_ZA
dc.contributor.advisorDu Toit, D. S.en_ZA
dc.contributor.advisorMahlomaholo, S.en_ZA
dc.contributor.authorDu Toit, Henrietteen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2018-01-11T08:39:56Z
dc.date.available2018-01-11T08:39:56Z
dc.date.issued2017en_ZA
dc.descriptionDissertation (M.Ed. (Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology Education), 2017en_ZA
dc.description.abstract𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 There are ongoing concerns about educational institutions not empowering learners with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed for school achievement, lifelong learning, and the workplace of the new millennium. In particular, South African learners have performed poorly in recent national and international assessments of mathematical proficiency. As a result, the Department of Basic Education has asserted the importance of enhancing the quality of Mathematics teaching and learning. Enhancing the ability to teach Mathematics has the potential to improve educational outcomes, as well as increase future employment and higher education opportunities for young South Africans. The poor Mathematics results point to the need to enhance, among other things, learners’ metacognitive awareness. Metacognitive awareness entails the knowledge and regulation of one’s cognitive processes. Enhancing metacognition could not only support learners in solving mathematical problems, and so improve mathematical achievement, but could also enhance productive and lifelong learning in learners. Fostering metacognitive awareness within Mathematics learners involves first fostering metacognitive awareness in Mathematics teachers, who are responsible for facilitating quality Mathematics teaching and learning. However, research suggests that teachers generally do not teach or model metacognitive awareness to their learners, or display metacognitive adaptive competence in their own teaching practice. The purpose of the study was to determine the level of metacognitive awareness of Mathematics pre-service teachers at a Higher Education Institution. Framed within a post-positivist/interpretivist paradigm, a mainly quantitative research approach with a minor qualitative enquiry informed the study. The Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) was distributed to fourth-year Mathematics pre-service teachers at a South African Higher Education Institution in order to determine their metacognitive awareness regarding Knowledge of cognition (comprising of Declarative knowledge, Procedural knowledge, and Conditional knowledge) and Regulation of cognition (comprising of Planning, Information management, Monitoring, Debugging, and Evaluation). To enrich the findings of the quantitative analysis, the qualitative data generated from a think-aloud problem-solving session—where the pre-service teachers recorded their thought processes whilst solving a problem—was analysed to determine the extent to which their reported metacognitive awareness translated into successfully solving a Mathematics problem. In the quantitative findings on the MAI, the pre-service teachers reported a moderately high level of metacognitive awareness; in addition, they reported a higher level of metacognitive knowledge (Knowledge of cognition) than of metacognitive skills (Regulation of cognition). Findings from the think-aloud problem-solving session, meanwhile, point to an inadequate level of metacognitive awareness, indicating a gap between what the pre-service teachers report to do in the learning and problem solving of Mathematics and what they can actually do in a problem-solving context. There is historical precedent for this gap, as noted in the scholarship. The close of the study highlights the need to enhance the metacognitive awareness and reflective practice of these Mathematics pre-service teachers by enhancing their metacognitive skills—Monitoring, Debugging, and Evaluation—and enhancing their problem-solving skills. It is further recommended that reflective problem-solving opportunities built around complex, novel problems be incorporated into Mathematics modules in teacher training, to facilitate prolonged and deliberate reflection. More broadly, it recommends that metacognitive reflective and problem-solving opportunities are provided for novice and underqualified teachers. Such opportunities will aid prospective and current Mathematics teachers to become mathematically proficient and metacognitively aware themselves, to deal with novel scenarios in Mathematics and their teaching practice and to translate this metacognitive adaptive competence for their learners.en_ZA
dc.description.abstract 𝑨𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒌𝒂𝒂𝒏𝒔 Kommer bestaan dat opvoedkundige instellings nie daarin slaag om leerders te bemagtig met die kennis, vaardighede en gesindhede wat nodig is vir skoolprestasie, lewenslange leer, en die werksomgewing van die nuwe millennium. In die besonder, Suid-Afrikaanse leerders het swak presteer in onlangse nasionale en internasionale assessering van wiskundige vaardigheid. As gevolg hiervan, het die Departement van Basiese Onderwys die belangrikheid van die verbetering van die gehalte van wiskunde onderrig en leer daar gestel. Die verbetering van die vermoë om wiskunde te onderrig, het die potensiaal om opvoedkundige uitkomste te verbeter, sowel as om toekomstige werks en Hoër Onderwysgeleenthede vir jong Suid-Afrikaners te verhoog. Hierdie swak wiskunde resultate dui op die nodigheid om, onder andere, metakognitiewe bewustheid by leerders te verbeter. Metakognitiewe bewustheid behels die kennis en regulering van ‘n persoon se denkprosesse. Die verbetering van metakognisie kan nie net leerders in die oplossing van wiskundeprobleme ondersteun, en so wiskunde prestasie te verbeter nie, maar kan ook produktiewe en lewenslange leer by leerders bevorder. Bevordering van metakognitiewe bewustheid in wiskundeleerders behels eerstens die bevordering van metakognitiewe bewustheid in wiskundeonderwysers, wat verantwoordelik is vir die fasilitering van gehalte wiskundeonderrig en leer. Navorsing dui egter daarop dat onderwysers oor die algemeen nie metakognitiewe bewustheid onderrig of modelleer aan hul leerders nie, of metakognitiewe aanpasbare bevoegdheid toon in hul eie onderrigpraktyk nie. Die doel van die studie was om die vlak van metakognitiewe bewustheid van voornemende wiskundeonderwysers by 'n hoëronderwysinstelling te bepaal. Geraam binne 'n post-positivistiese/interpretivistiese paradigm, ‘n hoofsaaklik kwantitatiewe navorsingsbenadering met 'n mindere kwalitatiewe ondersoek het die studie toegelig. Die Metakognitiewe Bewustheidheidsvraelys (MAI) is toegedien aan die voornemende vierdejaar-wiskundeonderwysers by 'n Suid-Afrikaanse Hoër Onderwysinstelling om hul metakognitiewe bewustheid met betrekking tot Kennis van Kognisie (bestaande uit Verklarende kennis, Prosedurele kennis, en Voorwaardelike kennis) en Regulering van Kognisie (bestaande uit Beplanning, Inligtingverwerkingsbestuur, Monitering, Remediëring, en Evaluering) te bepaal. Om die bevindinge van hierdie kwantitatiewe analise te verryk, is kwalitatiewe data, gegenereer uit 'n ‘Think Aloud’’ probleemoplossingssessie, ontleed—waar voornemende onderwysers hul denkprosesse aanteken tydens die oplossing van 'n probleem—om vas te stel in watter mate die voornemende wiskundeonderwysers se gerapporteerde metakognitiewe bewustheid neerslag vind in die suksesvolle oplossing van 'n wiskundeprobleem. In die kwantitatiewe bevindinge op die MAI, rapporteer die voornemende onderwysers 'n matig hoë vlak van metakognitiewe bewustheid en, bykomend, hoër metakognitiewe selfkennis (Kennis van Kognisie) as metakognitiewe vaardighede (Regulering van Kognisie). Bevindinge van die ‘’Think Aloud’’ probleemoplossingssessie, egter, wys na 'n onvoldoende vlak van metakognitiewe bewustheid, wat dui op 'n gaping tussen wat die voornemende wiskundeonderwysers rapporteer om te doen in die leer en probleemoplossing van Wiskunde en wat hulle in werklikheid kan doen in ‘n probleemoplossingskonteks. Daar is historiese presedent vir hierdie gaping, soos aangedui in die literatuur. Die samevatting van die studie beklemtoon die noodsaaklikheid om die metakognitiewe bewustheid en reflektiewe praktyk van hierdie voornemende wiskundeonderwysers te verbeter deur die verbetering van hul metakognitiewe vaardighede, Monitering, Remediëring en Evaluering, en die verbetering van hul probleemoplossingsvaardighede. Vervolglik word aanbeveel dat daar in Wiskunde modules in onderwysopleiding, reflektiewe probleemoplossingsgeleenthede met komplekse, outentieke probleme ingebou word, wat die geleentheid bied vir langdurige en doelbewuste reflektering. ‘n Verder algemene aanbeveling is dat metakognitiewe reflektiewe en probleemoplossingsgeleenthede vir beginner en ondergekwalifiseerde onderwysers daargestel word. Sulke geleenthede sal bydra om voornemende en huidige wiskundeonderwysers wiskundigvaardig en metakognitief bewus te maak, om dus nuwe scenario's in Wiskunde en hul onderwyspraktyk te kan hanteer, en om sodoende hierdie metakognitiewe aanpasbare bevoegdheid aan hul leerders oor te dra.af_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11660/7567
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherUniversity of the Free Stateen_ZA
dc.publisher Abstract in other languages 𝘚𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘈𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘬𝘢𝘢𝘯𝘴en_ZA
dc.rights.holderUniversity of the Free Stateen_ZA
dc.subjectMathematics -- Study and teachingen_ZA
dc.subjectMetacognitionen_ZA
dc.subjectEducation, Higheren_ZA
dc.titleThe level of metacognitive awareness of pre-service mathematics teachers at a higher education institutionsen_ZA
dc.typeDissertationen_ZA
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