<p>Error analysis is the study of errors in learners’ work with a view to looking for possible explanations for these errors. It is a multifaceted activity involving analysis of correct, partially correct and incorrect processes and thinking about possible remediating strategies. This paper reports on such an analysis of learner tests. The tests were administered as part of the evaluation of an intervention project that aimed to teach mathematical problem solving skills to grade 1-4 learners. Quantitative error analysis was carried out using a coding sheet for each grade. A reliability coefficient was found for each test, as were item means and discrimination indexes for each item. The analysis provided some insight into the more common procedural and conceptual errors evidenced in the learners’ scripts. Findings showed similar difficulties across intervention and control schools and highlighted particular areas of difficulty. The authors argue that this analysis is an example of large-scale error analysis, but that the analysis method could be adopted by teachers of grades 1-4.</p>

No abstract

Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges are intended to equip youths with work-relevant skills, but the capacity of the labour market to absorb them is limited and South Africa has high levels of unemployment. Employers argue that young work-seekers from TVET colleges may well possess technical skills but lack employability skills, including appropriate work-based attitudes and values. In response to this scenario, a team of experts designed a short, interactive programme for TVET college students to acquire an improved understanding of and insight into their own values and how these inform their behaviour in the workplace. The values selected were respect, accountability, self-improvement and perseverance. The programme’s intended outcome was to increase the participants’ awareness of the link between values and their actions so that they could improve their own decision-making and their relationships with colleagues in the workplace. Following this programme, the students were afforded a period of workplace exposure during which they were required to reflect on their experience and how workplace behaviour revealed their own and work colleagues’ underlying values. A crucial challenge for the project team was to be able to measure any impact on the participants’ understanding of the values and how this understanding might guide their behaviour. The focus of this article is on how the assessment instrument was conceptualised, designed and piloted in South Africa and Kenya. The instrument was required to measure effectively any changes in the participants’ understanding of the meaning of each value and the adjustments in their ability to apply the values in real work-based scenarios.

This article presents the translation and adaptation process of a mathematics test for the acquisition of key mathematical (arithmetic) concepts by children from four to eight years of age. The origin of this test was in Germany, whence it was sourced by researchers at the University of Johannesburg. A conceptual model of hierarchical mathematics competence development forms the theoretical foundation of the test. This notion of hierarchical competence was tested in a one-dimensional Rasch analysis, which confirmed the hierarchical structure of the test with five levels of ability. In the translation process, it was imperative to ascertain whether the items of the translation had retained the conceptual content of the original test and had been allocated to the same conceptual levels as in the original test. In a number of pilot studies with a total of 1 600 South African children, we focused on the items that had been allocated to a different level, aiming to find out whether this was the result of translation errors. In analyses of different samples, discussing and reflecting on the model fit, and especially on items that did not fit well, ‘misfitting’ items could mostly be attributed to translation difficulties and differences in the children’s strategies, and not to a generally altered model. The final model was established after the rephrasing of critical items. This model has already been tested with 500 additional South African children. Results are presented and discussed, with the focus on the Sesotho test results.