Background: Initial teacher education (ITE) research in South Africa shows gaps in preservice teachers' (PSTs) primary mathematics knowledge. Aim: We study the mental mathematics understandings and teaching experiences of three PSTs who achieved high gains for learners they taught mental mathematics to using the Mental Starters Assessment Project…

The forced closure of South African schools left learners with many challenges, especially in language learning. This study aims to explore the perceptions of teachers teaching the same subject to the same grade during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose is to analyse learning losses and changes in the scholastic achievement of primary school…

Background: Teachers are responsible for curriculum implementation and transformation. Therefore, they are viewed as the primary agents of change in teaching and learning. As agents of change, they are responsible for being innovative and creative in their teaching and learning in their English First Additional Language (EFAL) class. Objectives:…

Background: Spelling is a vital component of literacy. This is because spelling includes multiple metalinguistic components, such as phoneme-grapheme awareness, orthographic awareness and morphophonemic knowledge. Despite this, there remains, to date, insufficient literature on spelling in the Southern Bantu languages and, more specifically, in…

Some coloured and black learners in South Africa use a light orange or pink crayon to represent themselves in art. Many learners name this colour "human colour" or "skin colour". This is troublesome, because it could reflect exclusionary ways of representing race in images and language. This case study, conducted with two…

Children's narrative skills have been widely studied in North America, but there is a paucity of African research. Within South Africa's diverse socio-cultural context, this study of mixed-race children explored the development of narrative production and the influence of home background variables. Using the Bear Story picture prompt, this…

This case study describes and investigates the instructional practices of Grades 1 to 5 teachers and the levels of geometry thinking of the learners, according to the Van Hiele model, with a view to determining whether there is a match between the instructional practice and the learners' level of thinking. The instructional practices of the…

South Africa's rich multicultural society is reflected by 11 official languages. The Language in Education policy stipulates that children should start learning at school in their home language until Grade 3. In most schools, the language of instruction for all subjects changes in Grade 4 from an indigenous African language to English, which means…

The article reports research in two South African grade 3 classrooms, one located within a disadvantaged school and one in an affluent suburban school. The research examines the pacing rules of different transmission practices: weak pacing (a slower rate of transmission) is associated with pedagogy in the working-class school, and strong pacing (a…