The purpose of this article is to examine teachers' and facilitators' (subject advisors) views of the approaches to teaching mathematics and mathematical literacy (ML). Using Bernstein's (1996) constructs of recognition and realisation rules, I analysed data from interviews conducted with mathematics and ML teachers and facilitators. The analysis shows that some teaching strategies are associated with mathematics and others with ML. That is, teachers and facilitators refer to teaching strategies that are domain specific (mathematics and ML). I therefore ask what it means for teaching strategies to be domain specific, particularly in the context of mathematics and ML.

This article focuses on learners’ understanding and their descriptions of the concepts of area and perimeter, how learners solve problems involving area and perimeter and the relationship between them and misconceptions, and the causes of these misconceptions as revealed by learners when solving these problems. A written test was administered to 30 learners and clinical interviews were conducted with three of these learners, selected based on their responses in the test. This article shows that learners lack a conceptual understanding of area and they do not know what a perimeter is. Learners also hold misconceptions about the relationship between area and perimeter. It appears that inadequate prior knowledge of area and perimeter is the root cause of these misconceptions. This article provides suggestions on how to deal with the concepts of area and perimeter.Keywords: area; perimeter; insights; misconceptions; Grade 10

The study aimed to investigate Ethiopian university lecturers’ readiness to use technology for teaching mathematics at the tertiary level during the COVID-19 pandemic when they were compelled to adapt to distant education. Using Google Forms, online questionnaires were distributed to 41 lecturers in three Ethiopian universities, of whom eighteen participated. Before the research, the questionnaire was piloted with eight lecturer participants to categorise questions and validate the instrument using the Rasch measurement model. The questionnaire was locally developed based on guidelines from the literature. It purposed to investigate university lecturers’ individual preparedness for technological instruction in terms of their knowledge, beliefs and current, and historical exposure to this mode of instruction. As a counterbalance, some circumstantial factors influencing their readiness were investigated too. Lecturers’ optimistic beliefs about using educational technologies have been found to contrast with some disabling circumstantial factors. This study revealed that the lecturers were generally able and interested in integrating technology into the teaching process but that barriers, primarily at the institutional level, hindered them from doing so. In addition to the technologies suggested in the questionnaire, participants enriched the research findings by adding more possible technologies that lecturers may use for educational purposes. The data was analysed using WINSTEPS (Student Version of WINSTEPS 4.7.0.0) and SPSS version 20. The results showed the reliability of using the instrument was 0.77 based on Cronbach’s alpha. The PT-measure correlation value determined the construct validity (PMC), ranging from 0.23 to 0.71 except item PUT15’s infit and outfit MNSQ between 0.1 to 1.86 and ZSTD range -1.05 to 1.61, which was acceptable. The fit statistics showed that the person separation index, 1.97, was considered good and that the item separation index, 0.63 was within an acceptable range. Person and item reliability were at 0.8 and 0.28, respectively. The result indicated that the new instrument with five items after eliminating unfit items (such as items FAT19, PTT10, KDT1, PTT8 and PTT 12) was reliable and valid to measure the use of technology in the teaching and learning process of the university lecturers.

This article gives an account of Grade 9 learners' understanding of the concept of the equal sign and how they move from an arithmetic to an algebraic equation. A case study, using a sequential mixed method research design, was conducted in a secondary school in Soshanguve, a township in Gauteng, South Africa. Out of the 49 learners who wrote a test on the concept of the equal sign, eight were selected for an interview. The study revealed that Grade 9 learners in this school interpreted the equal sign as a 'do something' and unidirectional (one-sided) sign, not as the concept that represents an equivalent (concept of keeping both sides of the equal sign equal) of two quantities. The researchers attributed misinterpretation of the equal sign to how learners had been taught the concept of number sentences in lower grades, where greater emphasis was placed on rules than on the meaning of a concept.

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