Background: Embracing the influential role of music in education, teachers can cultivate an environment that fosters learners' curiosity, creativity, and enthusiasm for acquiring knowledge. The first author, experienced in teaching Intermediate Phase music and mathematics, was keen to explore how to bridge the gap between the educational vision…

Children in their childhood and teenage years can acquire either healthy or unhealthy lifestyles. Without proper guidance, unhealthy lifestyles (e.g. risk-taking, substance abuse, poor family planning) may negatively affect their psychosexual development (i.e. ability to make healthier sexual choices). Male and female teachers can be role models…

Background: There is a concern in South Africa that pre-service teachers do not have the required knowledge to teach mathematics in primary school and to develop learners' number sense. In this study, pre-service teachers taught the mental strategy of bridging through ten through a structured teaching sequence from the Mental Starters Assessment…

Background: As the global landscape of education evolves with digital advancements, the feasibility of integrating digital music skills into primary school curricula has become a subject of exploration, South Africa is no exception. Aim: This study aims to conduct a content analysis of the existing scholarly writings to assess the feasibility of…

Background: South Africa is a country with a reading crisis: 81% of Grade 4 learners are unable to read for meaning in Grade 4. Teaching methods and practices have been identified as a primary cause; there is an over-reliance on choral methods, very little focus on meaning, weak feedback and assessment, and little interaction with books. Aim: This…

Background: The Mental Starters Assessment Project (MSAP) seeks to address poor performance in Grade 3 mathematics. The programme focusses on eliminating inefficient counting methods and promoting strategic mathematical skills, including numerical sense, mental calculation and rapid recall skills. Additionally, MSAP supports teachers' professional…

Students' challenging classroom behaviour remains problematic in some primary schools, causing daily disruptions. In South Africa, alternatives for managing student behaviour have proven ineffective, leaving teachers to grapple in classrooms. To gain insights into "what teachers are doing to curtail the problem," fifteen teachers were…

In South Africa, progression refers to the elevation of a learner from one grade to the following grade (excluding grade R), in spite of the learner not having achieved all the promotion stipulations (DBE, 2012a). This article is embedded in a social justice theoretical framework that advocates for a just society through fairness, equal access to…

Background: A large number of studies have established that reading for comprehension in South African schools is comparably poor relative to other Southern African states. Some of these studies confirm that learners' competency in reading in English is lacking when contextualised in a learning environment. Various systemic evaluations were…

Mathematics is not seen as an absolute corpus of well-founded knowledge anymore, but as a human activity, a social phenomenon, part of human culture that evolves historically and intelligibly in a social context. By harnessing the indigenous cultures and their knowledge systems in-depth, this article aims to evaluate how the sustainable…

Inclusive education requires teachers to design instruction that benefits all students, regardless of their abilities, gender, or cultural background. Cooperative learning, a strategy that inherently fosters inclusivity, is one of the approaches that can enhance the implementation of inclusive education. Therefore, teachers need to be well-versed…

Background: A global move towards inclusivity has made inclusive education (IE) a necessity. The education of the learner with hearing loss (HL) in an IE setting remains challenging and scarcely researched. Despite government's clear position on IE, the extent to which the recommendations in the Education White Paper 6 (2001) (EWP6) are…

Background: National and international assessments show South Africa's underperformance in mathematics. As many learners already fall behind in the early grades, where foundational number sense should be established, addressing the challenges of number sense in the Foundation Phase (FP) is important. Research recognises the need to better develop…

Background: Motor development of many children in rural areas of South Africa is compromised because of various socio-economic factors, hence, the need to address these developmental needs. Aim: To examine the immediate and sustainable effects of a 9-week movement programme on fundamental movement skills (FMS) of school children. Setting: Seven to…

In 1996, government policies in South Africa required all educational institutions to align with human rights and equality. Public schools now operate as inclusive institutions. Thus, there exists a problem that after 23 years of policy implementation, South African educators continue to acknowledge their need for knowledge, skills, and training…