This empirical paper reports on the development of a professional development initiative, namely the word sum-wheel, which teachers developed collaboratively. The study's objective was to determine how teachers' mathematics word problem-solving instruction could be enhanced through the development of the word-sum wheel using participatory action…

Literacy is essential to the development of any nation. Despite foreign aid to support education initiatives in Africa, high rates of illiteracy persist. This synthesis examined the extent to which early literacy intervention research has been conducted in Africa and the effects of these interventions on reading outcomes for students in…

Poor mathematics performance in schools is both a national and an international concern. Teachers ought to be equipped with relevant subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge as one way to address this problem. However, no mathematics knowledge and practice standards have as yet been defined for the preparation of Foundation Phase…

The present paper derives from a PhD study investigating the nexus between Grade 4 textbook vocabulary demands and Grade 3 isiXhosa-speaking learners' knowledge of that vocabulary to enable them to read to learn in Grade 4. The paper challenges the efficacy of the four current definitions of "word" for generating high frequency words…

The education system in South Africa has failed to produce competent learners. The effect thereof is intensely felt by higher education institutions. Many of the country's first-year students cannot read, write and comprehend satisfactorily. Public outcry has forced the Department of Basic Education to go back to the drawing-board. One initiative…

This paper addresses the controversial issues of improving the reading skills of young learners through technology-assisted reading programmes. On reporting the results of primary school learners from grade 2 to grade 7 who participated in a computer-based reading programme for seven months, we try to answer the critical questions of whether…