South Africa’s readiness to integrate ICT into mathematics and science pedagogy in secondary schools

Abstract

One of South Africa's identified priorities is the implementation of ICT in education. To this end a phased implementation plan was initiated in 2004 for ICT to be implemented into schools across the country over eight years. During this time South Africa also participated in three international studies undertaken by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) focusing on ICT in Education. Each of these permitted the country to benchmark its progress in terms of other countries and their implementation of ICT in education. The latest study, SITES 2006 provides a useful set of indicators against which South Africa can evaluate its progress with regard to its implementation of ICT. This paper seeks to evaluate South Africa's readiness to integrate ICT into mathematics and science classrooms. This was done using a number of indicators of "sustainable change" derived from SITES 2006 and then comparing these to countries such as Chile, Thailand and Norway, the former two with similar context and conditions and the latter with contrasting conditions. The findings reveal that whilst South Africa has made some progress since 1998 in terms of the implementation of ICT in education, that the majority of schools are still in their infancy regarding the acquisition of ICT and most of those who have access are still in the process of trying to integrate the ICT into their teaching and learning. It would appear that more fundamental needs in South Africa's education system have dominated its priorities.

Does the use of Information and Communication Technology through the use of Realistic Mathematics Education help kindergarten students to enhance their effectiveness in addition and subtraction?

“…Our results agree with the results of other similar studies showing the positive outcomes of a computer-based model of teaching mathematical concepts (Dimakos & Zaranis, 2010;Howie & Blignaut, 2009;Starkey, Klein, & Wakeley, 2004;Papadakis et al, 2016b;Trouche & Drijvers 2010;Zaranis et al, 2013). Therefore, the fourth research question was also answered positively.…”

“…The results of various studies link the appropriate use of computers with the ability of students to more effectively understand various mathematical concepts (Howie & Blignaut, 2009;Trouche & Drijvers, 2010;Walcott et al 2009). A large number of studies show a positive correlation between using computers and the development of mathematical thinking in school (Clements, 2002;Papadakis, Kalogiannakis, & Zaranis, 2016b;Vale & Leder, 2004).…”

An evaluation of the implementation of the National ICT Policy for Education in Namibian rural science classrooms

“…The national goals for integrating ICT in South African schools are summarised by Howie, Muller and Patterson (2005) and Howie and Blignaut (2009). In 2007, a baseline survey was conducted (Farrell & Isaacs, 2007) for the Department of Education (DoE) to determine the ICT available in schools in order to make informed decisions in terms of resource allocation.…”

The Role of Open Educational Resources (OERs) in Primary Education in Developing Nations: A Case Study of India

“…At the national level, the Indian government has been equipping rural regions with towers and ICT facilities in schools (Mathur & Sharma, 2009); a trend also observed in other developing countries like South Africa (Howie & Blignaut, 2009;Howie, 2010). It is suggested that if developing countries like India could address the factors that influence technology adoption, access and quality of education could be drastically improved in rural and impoverished regions (Lee, 2005;Feder, 1985).…”

“…Much like in the case of India, where the government has been investing in equipping rural regions with towers and schools with ICT facilities (Mathur & Sharma, 2009), the South African government has also been working on making ICTs an integral part of classroom learning (Howie & Blignaut, 2009), with the introduction of initiatives such as the technology-enhanced learning initiative (TELI), SchoolNet and Gauteng and Khanya projects. In addition, a…”