Language: A Cultural Capital for Conceptualizing Mathematics Knowledge

Nosisi Feza-Piyose

doi:10.29333/iejme/270

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Nosisi Feza-Piyose

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Abstract

Mathematics education in South Africa is in crisis. Students continue to perform at a lower level compared to other nations including those with low GPD compared to them. Two factors have been highlighted in research that impedes mathematics learning: teacher content knowledge and irrelevant teaching strategies. This study contributes to this literature by investigating five African (from a former White school) fifth grade students’ learning of length measurement with the aim of eliciting the students’ thinking levels by using a length learning trajectory. Clinical interviews and teaching experiments were employed for a comprehensive description of these students’ processes. The findings reveal that students’ mother tongue is a psychological tool that enriches their mathematics learning process, learning trajectory assisted in analysing students developmental processes with language and poor number development impeded abstraction in learning of length measurement concepts.

Keywords

multilingualism
number development
internalization
learning trajectory

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

INT ELECT J MATH ED, Volume 7, Issue 2, October 2012, 62-79

https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/270

Publication date: 12 Dec 2012

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APA

Feza-Piyose, N. (2012). Language: A Cultural Capital for Conceptualizing Mathematics Knowledge. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 7(2), 62-79. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/270

Vancouver

Feza-Piyose N. Language: A Cultural Capital for Conceptualizing Mathematics Knowledge. INT ELECT J MATH ED. 2012;7(2):62-79. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/270

AMA

Feza-Piyose N. Language: A Cultural Capital for Conceptualizing Mathematics Knowledge. INT ELECT J MATH ED. 2012;7(2), 62-79. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/270

Chicago

Feza-Piyose, Nosisi. "Language: A Cultural Capital for Conceptualizing Mathematics Knowledge". International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education 2012 7 no. 2 (2012): 62-79. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/270

Harvard

Feza-Piyose, N. (2012). Language: A Cultural Capital for Conceptualizing Mathematics Knowledge. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 7(2), pp. 62-79. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/270

MLA

Feza-Piyose, Nosisi "Language: A Cultural Capital for Conceptualizing Mathematics Knowledge". International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, vol. 7, no. 2, 2012, pp. 62-79. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/270