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What Can we learn from TIMSS 2003?
Caroline Long
Centre for Evaluation and Assessment, University of Pretoria

South Africa participated in the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 1995, 1999 and 2003, but not in 2007. Critics have accused the National Department of Education (DoE) of opting out because of previous poor results (Business Day 25^th April, 2007). The defense from the DoE is that the interventions in place have not had time to take effect. The major question guiding this paper is “What can teachers learn from South Africa’s participation in TIMSS 2003?”

The purpose of the TIMSS study is the improvement of teaching and learning through evaluating different aspects of the education system from educational policy to implementation in schools and finally to learner attainment. One of the biggest limitations of large-scale international studies such as TIMSS is that the information obtained does not reach teachers in a form, which enables them to interpret the evidence and take action. 

In this paper I describe how the conceptual resources from the TIMSS study were used to investigate the performance of a sample of South African children on ratio and proportional reasoning.

Challenges in implementing the new mathematics curriculum
G. M. Moremedi
Departmental of Mathematical Sciences, University of South Africa

The challenges concerning implementation of the new mathematics curriculum at school level are considered in this paper. More emphasis is placed on those challenges that in the author’s view can be best handled by AMESA and SAMS (South African Mathematical Society) together.

INNOCENCE OF REALISTIC TASKS: TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES
Godfrey Sethole
Tshwane University of Technology

Teachers are, as it were, central to the success of classroom events. The success to which the use of realistic tasks will advance is largely determined by teachers’ resolve about what has to go on in class. But what concerns do teachers have? This paper presents and reflects on two studies which make it possible to explore the teachers’ perspectives on the use of realistic tasks. The current finding is that there is a range of concerns, which include the nature of tasks and the type of learners.
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Living in the world of numbers – being mathematically literate:
Panel Discussion, AMESA 2007

Hamsa Venkat

Marang Centre, Wits University

In this paper, the notion of being ‘functional’ (using mathematics in literate ways)  is considered with reference to two bodies of research – one finding evidence of mathematical functionality, the other finding widespread evidence of a lack of functionality. It is argued that the key difference is that the first group, located in anthropological and cross-cultural research traditions, has focused on functionality within specific activity settings, whilst the latter group, working within mathematics education, is calling for a much more generalized notion of functionality. The implications of the findings of these two groups for the teaching of Mathematical Literacy are briefly considered, and some learners’ responses from a school where some of these implications have been translated into practice are presented.
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Mathematical Applications, Modeling and Technology
Michael de Villiers
School of Science, Mathematics & Technology Education, Univ. of KwaZulu-Natal
(On sabbatical, Dept. of Mathematics & Statistics, Kennesaw State University)

The new South African mathematics curriculum through all the grades strongly emphasizes a more relevant, realistic approach focusing a lot on applications of mathematics to the real world. This is in line with curriculum development in most other countries. For example, the influential NCTM Standards sums it up succinctly in the following respective standards for instructional programs in algebra and geometry from prekindergarten through grade 12 (respectively from http://standards.nctm.org/document/chapter3/alg.htm  http://standards.nctm.org/document/chapter3/geom.htm):
(Students should be enabled to in … )
Algebra
use mathematical models to represent and understand quantitative relationships;
Geometry
use visualization, spatial reasoning, and geometric modeling to solve problems.

Like the NCTM Standards, the new South African curriculum now also encourages for the first time the use of appropriate technology in modeling and solving real-world problems as follows (Dept. of Education, 2002, p. 3):

·        use available technology in calculations and in the development of  models.

But how do our learners and students interpret mathematics and its relationship to the real world? What is their proficiency in applying mathematics, modeling real-life problems (and using technology efficiently)?

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