Abstract
This article describes the experiences and mathematics performance of Grade 12 learners selected to participate in a mathematics intervention project using digital video disk (DVD) technology within a blended learning context. Blended learning in the context of this study is defined as employing a variety of appropriate methods of delivery to enhance the teaching and learning process. DVD technology was used as an ingredient in this blended learning approach, since it is easily available and accessible to the majority of learners and the schools they attend. The study reported on here forms part of a larger study using action research methodology. This article reports on a single stage of the action research: implementing a change to improve the situation and observing the consequences of this action. Mathematics Incubator School Project (ISP) learners completed questionnaires with open-ended questions which pertained to their experiences of the blended learning approach. The observations of the facilitators were also recorded. A single school was used as a case study and the mathematics performance of learners who participated in the ISP was compared with that of those who did not. The findings suggest that use of DVD technology in this blended learning approach impacted on mathematics learning and enhanced the mathematics performance of learners.
Highlights
The ongoing poor quality in mathematics teaching and learning in South Africa is the ‘most important obstacle to African advancement’ (Centre for Development and Enterprise, 2004, p. 239)
The guiding research question for this research is: How can a blended learning approach that incorporates digital video disk (DVD) technology contribute to improving the quality of teaching and learning in secondary school mathematics?
DVD as a resource Learners felt that explanations of the mathematical concepts were good and the concepts were presented well
Summary
The ongoing poor quality in mathematics teaching and learning in South Africa is the ‘most important obstacle to African advancement’ (Centre for Development and Enterprise, 2004, p. 239). At the heart of this concern is the fact that the present education system has disadvantaged learners by failing to meet their educational needs, especially regarding mathematics (Evoh, 2009). It has been our observation in lecturing first-year mathematics students at a large metropolitan university in the Eastern Cape in South Africa that many first-year students are under-prepared for mathematics. There are interventions where the aim is to uplift the skills of the teacher, like the Ergo programme (AngloGold Ashanti, 2009) None of these secondary school mathematics interventions make use of technology in the teaching and learning of mathematics within a blended learning approach. The DVDs were presented to learners using a DVD player connected to a data projector
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