Crossing Over

The basics of evolution: workbook for teachers

Increasing learner access to information and communication technologies (ICT) in the curriculum is strategically important to ensure that school leavers moving into the labour market or into further study have the appropriate background and capacities to succeed, as work and educational environments becoming increasingly information intensive.

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) assesses mathematics and science knowledge of fourth and eighth grade learners around the world. South Africa, where learners were assessed at the fifth grade, participated in TIMSS 2015, assessing mathematics; and in TIMSS 2019, assessing both mathematics and science.

The Low Achievement Trap is an empirical study of student mathematics learning in Grade 6 classrooms that is unique in its focus on two school systems shaped by different political histories on either side of the Botswana-South Africa border. The study provides a detailed examination of the capacity of teachers - how they teach, how much they teach, and what they teach. Because of this wealth of detail, The Low Achievement Trap gives us much greater insight than previous research into why students seem to be making larger gains in the classrooms of South Eastern Botswana than in those of North West Province, South Africa. Rather than identifying a single major factor to explain this difference, the study finds that a composite of inter-related variables revolving around teachers mathematics knowledge and their capacity to teach mathematics are crucial to improving education in both regions. The message is a hopeful one: good teachers can make a difference in student learning.

Internationally, Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) has become a standard component of education policy reforms aimed at meeting the requirements of a globalised labour market on the one hand, while responding to demands for widening access to further and higher education on the other.