Exploring Teachers’ Meta-Cognitive Skills in Mathematics Classes in Selected Rural Primary Schools in Eastern Cape, South Africa

Abstract

Undoubtedly the acquisition of mathematical skills for problem solving is critically important in today’s sophisticated technological world. There is growing evidence that meta-cognition application is an important component of academic success in general and impacts on mathematical achievement in particular. Teachers’ application of meta-cognition therefore directs and reflects their teaching-practice behaviour which influences their learners’ learning with understanding in problem-solving. The purpose of the study reported on in this article was to explore teachers’ available meta-cognitive skills in class with the intention of supporting learners’ development of mathematics in problem-solving in some selected rural primary schools in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The participants were three teachers purposefully selected from three primary schools. Interviews were conducted with the three teachers and three lessons were observed. The interviews, as an extension of observation, focused on the teachers’ knowledge or understanding of available meta-cognitive skills and how they used these skills in helping their learners’ development of mathematics problem-solving. The findings included a detailed exploration of the teachers’ acquisition and use of specific metacognitive skills, either consciously or unconsciously, during teaching and learning processes in order to develop their mathematics learners’ meta-cognitive skills as well as in solving mathematical problems. The results of the observation showed that there was evidence of teachers applying meta-cognitive skills unconsciously in assisting their learners in problemsolving in class. The interviews confirmed this evidence of available meta-cognitive skills which the teachers usually applied in assisting their learners in problem-solving in class. Recommendations have been made regarding teachers’ methods of teaching to improve the development of such skills in the lives of their mathematics learners through problemsolving.

Keywords:

• exploration
• meta-cognition
• skills
• teachers
• mathematics
• Eastern Cape