TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING STUDENT ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA: A PILOT STUDY OF GRADE 6 MATHEMATICS LESSONS IN GAUTENG PROVINCE

A REPORT PREPARED BY THE HUMAN SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL (HSRC) WITH STANFORD UNIVERSITY (IN PARTNERSHIP WITH A CONSORTIUM OF SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES AND JET Education Services)

24 APRIL 2008

Table of Contents
Research Team, ii List of Tables, iii List of Boxes, iii List of Figures, iv List of Abbreviations, v Note on Terminology, vi

INTRODUCTION, 1 1. THE CONTEXT OF THE STUDY, 3 Profiling Public School Teachers in South Africa, 3 Teachers in Gauteng, 8 Curriculum policy, 10 Teacher education, 12 Teacher supervision and evaluation, 16 Socio-economic context of the schools, 17 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY, 21 General Conceptual Framework, 21 Data collection, 24 RESULTS, 29 Learner and Teacher Mathematics Knowledge, 29 Teacher Content and Pedagogical Content Knowledge, 32 School Socio-economic Level, Teacher Mathematics Knowledge and Student Performance, 35 Teaching Practice and Proficiency in Gauteng Province, 43 Results: Time Segment Summaries, 46 The Mathematical Content of the Lessons, 50 Mathematical Proficiency, 51 Level of Cognitive Demand, 53 The Teacher’s Observed Knowledge, 54 The Relation between Overall Teaching Quality Rating and Teacher, Content and Pedagogical Knowledge, 56 School Principal Results, 58 Regression Estimates of Student Achievement Outcomes, 60 CONCLUSIONS, 68 REFERENCES, 73 APPENDIX 1 : INSTRUMENTS, 77

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Research Team
Principal Investigators: Martin Carnoy and Linda Chisholm TEAM MEMBERS Human Sciences Research Council Fabian Arends, Hlengani Baloyi, Ursula Hoadley, Mbithi wa Kivilu, Lolita Winnaar Stanford University Nii Addy, Alejandra de Sorto, Jeff Marshall University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg Brahm Fleisch, Ingrid Sapire, Michael Cross