Content Knowledge of Grade 6 Mathematics Teachers in 12 African Countries

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: Lives of Teachers SIG Poster Session

Abstract

This paper provides a descriptive analysis of the levels and distribution of Grade 6 mathematics teacher content knowledge both within and between 12 African countries: Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zanzibar. The data set used is from the Southern and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ III), which tested 3382 Grade 6 mathematics teachers across the 12 countries in 2007. Given that 16 of the 42 items in the SACMEQ teacher test were taken from the 1995 Grade 8 TIMSS test, we compare the performance of SACMEQ Grade 6 mathematics teachers with Grade 8 pupils from 38 TIMSS countries and report the results.

Authors

• Nicholas Spaull, Stellenbosch University

• Servaas Van der Berg, Stellenbosch University