The sweet smell of success is in the air! AIMSSEC is once again celebraing the completion of two courses enhancing the professional development of South African mathematics teachers in terms of subject content knowledge and pedagogical skills. The two courses, Mathematical Communication and Language (MCL), and Mathematical Thinking (MT4) which started at the beginning of this year ended with the closing ceremony for both held on Saturday 17 July 2023.
The MCL online course:
The Mathematical Communication and Language (MCL) online course was offered to mathematics teachers at Senior Phase (Grades 7 – 9) and FET Phase (Grades 10 – 12) levels.
This course was sponsored by Standard Bank South Africa, with South African Mathematics Foundation (SAMF) playing a profound role as a facilitator in the sponsorship agreement between the two institutions, SAMF and AIMS South Africa/AIMSSEC. Our sincere gratitude goes to the representatives of these institutions, who contributed immensely to our success story.
The MCL is the second course in a sequence of seven courses to develop subject leaders. It started on 28 January and was presented over a period of fifteen weeks till 17 June 2023.
AIMSSEC invited seventy-five students to register for this second course. Forty-nine of these students are from the MT 3 online course, while twenty-six students are alumni who attended previous MT courses and obtained a merit or distinction.
From across the country seventy-five mathematics teachers took part in this course: the demographics of this group are summarised below:
Gender: Females 48 and Males 27.
Race groups: Black Ethnic Group 74, Coloured Ethnic Group 1.
Provinces: Eastern Cape (31); Free State (5); Gauteng (8); KZN (2); Limpopo (25); Mpumalanga (1), North-West (1); Western Cape (2).
Quintiles: Q1 (23); Q2 (24); Q3 (21); Q4 (3); Q5 (3) Independent (1).
Overall, based on the research findings carried out, the MCL online course was a success, as modelled by Guskey’s Teacher Professional Development model; with a positive yield of 91.07 % .
Top Academic Achievers:
The MT4 online course:
Mathematical Thinking (MT4) Online Course was offered to mathematics teachers at Senior Phase (Grades 7 – 9) and FET Phase (Grades 10 – 12) levels. Our focus on the AIMSSEC course remains the transformation from a traditional style of teaching to a 21st Century style of teaching. See the insert below:
The MT course is the preliminary of the AIMSSEC’s seven course sequence leading to the Subject Leader Training Courses. These coursesequip teachers to be Heads of Department, teacher trainers for an NGO or subject advisors for local government. As candidates pass each course, they are awarded an AIMSSEC certificate, which is SACE endorsed. The MT course is endorsed for twenty-five (SACE) professional development points.
Demographic data of students
AIMSSEC invited 80 students to register online for the MT4 Online course, 40 FET Phases and 40 Senior Phase teachers.
Gender: 48 female and 32 male teachers
Race: 76 Black, 2 Coloured, and 2 White teachers
Provinces: Eastern Cape (30), Gauteng (3), KwaZulu Natal (16), Limpopo (27), and
Western Cape (4)
Top Academic Achievers:
The Mathematical Thinking (MT5) Online Course will be next presented by AIMSSEC from 29 July to 19 November to teachers from Senior Phase (Grades 7 – 9) and FET Phase (Grades 10 – 12). Eighty students registered by 30 June 2023 (forty FET Phase teachers and forty Senior Phase teachers).
According to the McKinsey (2007) report: “The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers”; and our courses focus on developing the quality of teachers in South Africa.
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