This study was designed to investigate the perceptions of teachers and subject advisers regarding the curriculum development processes in Fort Beaufort District in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The sample consisted of twenty-two respondents: four principals, twelve teachers and six subject advisers. Data were collected through structured…

This paper argues that there is a gap in the research on teaching and learning mathematics, and thus a need for research into effective teaching practices. From a selective review of literature, reasons are examined as to why less emphasis appears to have been placed on generating knowledge about teaching and effective mathematical teaching…

Purpose: The explanatory study aimed to understand the global perspective of quality education and describe transformative strategies that empower teacher educators and equip the education system and future teachers to act as change agents by fostering learning processes that support students towards a sustainable future.…

Effective teaching is a key factor in educational effectiveness and improvement. To facilitate the knowledge exchange regarding effective teaching in secondary education internationally, there has been a growing interest in using classroom observation measures. However, little is known regarding the comparability of observation measures across…

Research was undertaken to find ways of resolving implementation challenges of supervision and evaluation systems by examining the perceptions of South African school-based managers and educators regarding the effectiveness of the clinical supervision strategy as a tool for improving the quality of teaching in compliance with the total quality…

Despite South Africa's high spending in education compared to other sub-Saharan countries, its education system is often criticized as ineffective as evidenced by poor student outcomes in both national and international assessments. This educational inefficiency is often linked to poor teacher quality, particularly in mathematics and science where…

This study investigates the role of the e-tutor within an Open Distance Learning Higher Education institution in terms of perceptions of their work roles and the assessment of the competencies of the e-tutor. In the universities' strategic plan the importance of providing excellent service to learners is strongly emphasised. E-tutors are the…

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has highlighted a 'vicious cycle of decline' in rural, regional and remote (RRR) regions, with significant inequalities in educational outcomes between rural and urban areas. However, interventions have not resulted in transformative or lasting improvements to education in rural…

The South African people have a history of resistance to domination, injustice and inequality. It is therefore surprising that there has been an increase in social inequality, since the start of political democracy in 1994. Recently, the five teachers' unions refused to administer the Annual National Assessments. This action indicates some…

The quality of experiential learning in distance education is a dominant concern of all major stakeholders and the public at large. Institutions of higher learning which train school teachers at a distance are often blamed for the poor quality of teachers and teaching. The perception among some sections of the society is that teachers trained at a…

This special issue of "Perspectives in Education" arises from a symposium entitled "Academic depth and rigour in initial teacher education" jointly organised by four universities in South Africa. The symposium, held in October 2014, attracted 125 delegates from 18 South African higher education institutions (HEIs).…

Learner performance in the South African school education system is under tight scrutiny as it is the lens through which the health of the system is judged. However, despite the challenges faced, the South African landscape is dotted with those schools that have produced outstanding learner performance. Hence, this study is prompted by the success…

Although many South African teachers have access to the internet, they often refrain from using available online resources to improve the quality of their own teaching. In an attempt to promote Mathematics teachers' effective use of online resources, we developed a web-based platform. This article reports on the first phase of a broader project…

The purpose of this study is to test empirically whether and how classroom and school factors contribute to student mathematics learning gains in the border region of North West province, South Africa and Southeastern Botswana. Our results suggest that in both regions, improving teaching quality has an important impact on how much mathematics…

This study focuses on quantifying the quality of mathematics teaching in 183 randomly selected sixth grade classrooms: 100 from the North West province of South Africa and 83 from South East Botswana. The teaching quality is measured by coding videotaped lessons for three different components: mathematical proficiency, level of cognitive demand,…