What is in?

What is out?

What has changed?

This was not an option.

The HG/SG system has done inestimable damage: many FET mathematics teachers themselves did SG mathematics at

school because their schools did not offer HG.

Attempts to encourage Dinaledi schools to prepare their best candidates to write Paper 3 have not been successful.

Paper 3 topics included in the core curriculum:

Euclidean Geometry

Probability

Core curriculum topics moved/removed:

Transformation Geometry

Linear Programming

1. Universities call for the return of Euclidean Geometry.

2. Teachers and other stakeholders at Marang and other discussion forums indicated their support for the inclusion of Paper 3 topics.

3. Concern about curriculum overload prompted a search for topics to remove.

4. Apart from the rotation of a point through any angle, it was felt that the formalisation of the rules for transformation geometry can be handled in Grade 9.

5. Internationally, linear programming (unlike probability) is not a topic that features in the majority of Grade 12 curricula.

Teachers feel anxious when they are not sure of the depth at which topics might be examined.

Typical questions are:

“How much time should I spend on the log laws?”

“Could they ask a question like : Solve for x:

22 2 5?"x x

0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

0 - 19 20 - 29 30 - 33 34 - 39 40 - 49 50 - 59 60 - 69 70 - 79 80 - 100

Nu

mb

er

of

lea

rne

rs

mark (%)

NCS Mathematics 2009

Current percentages are:

K : 25% R : 30% C : 30% P : 15%

Suggested percentages:

K : 25% R : 45% C : 20% P : 10%

It is difficult to agree on the cognitive demands of questions in examination papers, but we need

to work on this.

It is hoped that the examples supplied and the suggested levels will go some way to opening

up a debate on this issue.

The work schedules are not meant to be prescriptive, especially at top performing schools and this needs to be made clear.

One expert stressed the need not to do too much Paper 1 work in the first term. This will become more critical if the recommendation to include

Euclidean geometry is accepted.

A decision was taken by subject heads at the DBE that only one project OR investigation per year

can be set in future.

It has become clear that teachers have very different ideas about what constitutes an

investigation, a project and an assignment.

The time and cognitive demands of assessment tasks vary significantly from school to school.

Grade 11: error Grade 11: T4 Grade11: other

Algebra, equations

and inequalities

± 25 ± 50 ± 40

Patterns & sequences

± 25 ± 20 ± 20

Finance ± 15 ± 10 ± 20

Functions and graphs

± 35 ± 50 ± 50

Calculus ± 35

Probability ± 15 ± 20 ± 20

However, our problem in this country (as in many other places in the world) is NOT so much the curriculum as the lack of good math teachers; that's the bottom line! In my opinion, no curriculum will be 'successful' until massive inservice training on a continual basis is implemented. Specifically, their Pedagogic Content Knowledge needs to be drastically improved (from primary level up!), and unfortunately tinkering a little here, and a little there, or importing a different curriculum is not going to help much.

Michael de Villiers