Onderwysers se oortuigings, onderwysers se selfdoeltreffendheid, onderriggehalte en onderrigklarigheid : die verband met Suid-Afrikaanse leerders se wiskundeprestasie

Abstract

AFRIKAANS : Die studie het ten doel om ons begrip van die verhouding tussen onderwysers se oortuigings, selfdoeltreffendheid, onderriggehalte en onderrigklarigheid, en graad 9- Suid-Afrikaanse leerders se wiskundeprestasie te verbreed. Die studie het ’n unieke invalshoek deurdat die onderwerp benader word vanuit die sosiale kognitiewe teorie (Bandura 1986), wat fokus op die wederkerige interaksie tussen persoonlike faktore (soos oortuigings en selfdoeltreffendheid), omgewingsinvloede (soos onderriggehalte) en gedrag (soos wiskundeprestasie). ’n Multivlakanalise met wiskundeprestasie as die afhanklike veranderlike en 15 voorspellers is uitgevoer, terwyl sosio-ekonomiese status en geslag beheer is. ’n Sekondêre data-ontleding met behulp van Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) se 2019-data is gedoen deur ’n kwantitatiewe benadering te gebruik. Die resultate toon dat onderwysers se voorbereidingstyd ’n sleutelvoorspeller van wiskundeprestasie is, wat die noodsaaklikheid van verbeterde voorbereiding en beplanningsgeleenthede beklemtoon. Beleidmakers en belanghebbendes behoort dit te oorweeg om geteikende opleidingsessies vir onderwysers aan te bied. Hierdie programme kan fokus op effektiewe voorbereidingstegnieke, soos die optimalisering van kurrikulumbronne en die integrasie van tegnologie om lesbeplanning te vaartbelyn. Deur geteikende opleiding te bied, kan opvoeders hul voorbereidingspraktyke verbeter, wat tot verbeterde onderrig- en leergehalte sal lei. Ouers se druk op onderwysers is ook geïdentifiseer as ’n beduidende voorspeller van wiskundeprestasie, wat die belang van ouerlike betrokkenheid beklemtoon. Dit onderstreep die behoefte aan beleide wat ouerlike betrokkenheid by skoolverwante aktiwiteite aanmoedig. Daar is ook gewys op die vooruitgang sedert die implementering van die Suid-Afrikaanse Skolewet van 1996, wat die rol van ouerskap in opvoeding benadruk. Om die potensiaal van hierdie beleidsmaatreëls te ontsluit, word daar aanbeveel dat beleidmakers strategieë implementeer om ouers aktief by skoolaktiwiteite te betrek deur verslae te vereis en inligtingsbronne te versprei. Hierdie samewerkingspogings sal uiteindelik bydra tot ’n meer omvattende opvoedkundige omgewing en verbeterde akademiese uitkomste vir leerders.ENGLISH : There has been an intriguing trend in the evolution of South African educational research. For a long time, most school research took the form of small-scale qualitative studies, such as case studies or critical policy studies; however, research in education has witnessed an increasing demand for high-quality, large-scale quantitative studies. The importance of conducting quantitative research within the educational landscape lies in the fact that stakeholders are increasingly looking to large-scale or population-based studies for evidence to inform policy development. Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is an international large-scale study, and the recent TIMSS 2019 results indicated that South African learners performed poorly in mathematics at the grade 9 level compared to other participating countries. A substantial amount of research is currently being conducted in South Africa to improve the quality of mathematics education by concentrating on the cognitive determinants of mathematical ability. However, the significance of non-cognitive psychosocial elements such as self-efficacy is frequently overlooked in these investigations. Teachers’ self-efficacy and their perceptions, along with teaching quality and instructional clarity, have been shown to influence learner motivation, supporting or impeding their learning process. This study aims to broaden our understanding of the nature of the relationship between teachers’ beliefs, teachers’ self-efficacy, teaching quality and instructional clarity, and grade 9 South African learners’ mathematics achievement. This study takes a unique perspective by approaching the topic through the lens of the social cognitive theory, which focuses on the reciprocal interaction between personal factors (such as beliefs and self-efficacy), environmental influences (such as teaching quality and instructional clarity) and behaviour (such as mathematics achievement) (Bandura 1986). A secondary data analysis using TIMSS 2019 data was conducted using a quantitative approach. A positivist paradigm and a deductive approach were implemented, which align with the quantitative research method. TIMSS 2019 used a two-stage stratified cluster sample strategy for grade 8, representing eight years of formal schooling, but South Africa selected grade 9 learners to provide a better match with the demands of the assessments. First, schools were sampled based on their size, and then one or more intact classes from each participating school’s target grade were chosen. In South Africa, the realised TIMSS 2019 sample consisted of 519 schools, 543 mathematics teachers and 20 829 learners. In this study, the learner and teacher questionnaires were used, which were completed by the learners and teachers respectively. For mathematics achievement, TIMSS 2019 provided five plausible values, and to correctly incorporate weights necessary to work with these plausible values, the IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement) IDB Analyzer and Hierarchical Linear Models (HLM) software were used. A multi-level analysis was used, with mathematics achievement as the dependent variable and 15 predictors relating to teachers’ beliefs, teachers’ self-efficacy, teaching quality and instructional clarity, while controlling for socio-economic status and gender. Regarding quality assurance, this paper doesn’t go into all the detail on how TIMSS established reliability and validity in their results; instead, the reader is referred to the relevant literature, but to ensure reliability and validity of our results, I employed multiple imputation to replace missing values, as the HLM software package can’t work with missing values. Multiple imputation has been shown to be one of the best ways to deal with missing values. Regarding ethical considerations, I don’t go into the detail of how TIMSS 2019 conducted their research ethically. I omitted this discussion for brevity, and the details are available on the TIMSS website. Please note that the TIMSS 2019 data analysed in this study had no identifiers, so schools and participants cannot be identified. The results showed that teachers’ preparation time is a key predictor of mathematics achievement, highlighting the need to explore policies for improving South African teachers’ preparation and planning opportunities. Policymakers and stakeholders should consider tailored training sessions for teachers. These programmes can focus on effective preparation techniques, such as optimising curriculum resources and integrating technology to streamline lesson planning. By providing targeted training, educators can enhance their preparation practices, leading to improved teaching quality and learning outcomes. Parental pressure on teachers as a significant predictor of mathematics achievement highlights the importance of exploring policies that govern parental involvement in school-related activities, as was implemented by the South African Schools Act (SASA) in 1996. According to the SASA, it is mandated that school governing bodies hold meetings involving parents, learners, educators and staff at least once a year. Significant progress has been made since the enactment of the SASA, thanks in part to the availability of informative resources like the booklet published by the National Education Collaboration Trust in 2016, emphasising the critical role of empowering parents in matters pertaining to their children’s education. To further harness the potential of these resources, it is recommended that policymakers and stakeholders implement strategies to actively engage parents with such booklets. A practical approach would involve schools requesting parents to regularly complete reports based on the booklet’s content. By integrating reporting measures alongside the distribution of informative booklets, policymakers and stakeholders can foster a culture of parental engagement, resulting in a more comprehensive educational environment. This collaborative effort between schools, parents and policyholders will contribute to enhanced educational outcomes for children, establishing a stronger foundation for their academic success. Finally, I acknowledge that there are many limitations when working with secondary data; for example, the data might be incomplete, obsolete, inaccurate or biased. To overcome this limitation, for incomplete data, the missing values were replaced with multiple imputation, which has shown to be one of the best ways to deal with missing data, and, to avoid possible bias, the researcher stayed neutral and objective when interpreting the results. The availability of secondary data may also mean that researchers look for themes of interest within the data, rather than commencing with a set of research questions or hypotheses. To overcome this limitation, a research hypothesis was set up based on literature searches on the topic of interest before the researcher turned towards the TIMSS 2019 questionnaires to see whether I captured the necessary data to address the research questions of interest.