Investigating the status of supplementary tuition in the teaching and learning of mathematics

The study seeks to investigate the status of supplementary tuition in the teaching and learning of mathematics and mathematical literacy. The study followed a descriptive survey design involving the use of learner and teacher questionnaires. A convenient sample of mathematics and mathematical literacy teachers together with a stratified sample of their Grade 11 learners were drawn from a purposive sample of highperforming high schools in the East London district of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The results show that supplementary tuition is popular, especially among girls, and it is in three forms (i.e. private tuition, vacation school and problem-solving classes): Problemsolving classes dominated by working on past/model examination papers is the most preferred; in some instances supplementary tuition is offered for a fee; it is not only confined to poor performing learners; and participation in supplementary tuition is influenced by a variety of factors

Teaching measurement: The role of mathematics teachers' enacted PCK on gain in learner outcomes

Teaching is a challenging profession where teachers must create valuable learning opportunities to enhance learners’ conceptual understanding. Apart from mathematical content knowledge, teachers use their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) that develops as they reflect on previously taught lessons and learner responses in assessments. International and national assessment studies showed that South African learners perform poorly in, among other topics, Measurement. Thus, we determined the gain in learner outcomes as revealed in a pre-and post-test on Measurement and studied one of the PCK domains, namely teachers’ enacted PCK as informed by the baseline assessment learner outcomes. The aim was to determine how teachers’ enacted PCK relate to learner outcomes. Underpinned by a social constructivist paradigm, the study used a mixed-method research approach. Data were gathered from a pre-and post-test written by 124 Grade 9 learners taught by two experienced mathematics teachers in a city school in South Africa. Findings revealed that although some improvements are evident after the topic has been taught, the test was still experienced as difficult by almost all the learners. However, from the observations, there is little evidence that the experienced teachers extensively used the baseline assessment outcomes to inform their teaching

Teaching measurement : the role of mathematics teachers’ enacted pick on learner outcomes

Teaching is a challenging profession where teachers must create valuable learning opportunities to enhance learners’ conceptual understanding. Apart from mathematical content knowledge, teachers use their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) that develops as they reflect on previously taught lessons and learner responses in assessments. International and national assessment studies showed that South African learners perform poorly in, among other topics, Measurement. Thus, we determined the gain in learner outcomes as revealed in a pre-and post-test on Measurement and studied one of the PCK domains, namely teachers’ enacted PCK as informed by the baseline assessment learner outcomes. The aim was to determine how teachers’ enacted PCK relate to learner outcomes. Underpinned by a social constructivist paradigm, the study used a mixed-method research approach. Data were gathered from a pre-and post-test written by 124 Grade 9 learners taught by two experienced mathematics teachers in a city school in South Africa. Findings revealed that although some improvements are evident after the topic has been taught, the test was still experienced as difficult by almost all the learners. However, from the observations, there is little evidence that the experienced teachers extensively used the baseline assessment outcomes to inform their teaching.http://e-journal.stkipsiliwangi.ac.id/index.php/infinityScience, Mathematics and Technology EducationSDG-04:Quality Educatio

Effects of once-weekly exenatide on cardiovascular outcomes in type 2 diabetes

BACKGROUND: The cardiovascular effects of adding once-weekly treatment with exenatide to usual care in patients with type 2 diabetes are unknown. METHODS: We randomly assigned patients with type 2 diabetes, with or without previous cardiovascular disease, to receive subcutaneous injections of extended-release exenatide at a dose of 2 mg or matching placebo once weekly. The primary composite outcome was the first occurrence of death from cardiovascular causes, nonfatal myocardial infarction, or nonfatal stroke. The coprimary hypotheses were that exenatide, administered once weekly, would be noninferior to placebo with respect to safety and superior to placebo with respect to efficacy. RESULTS: In all, 14,752 patients (of whom 10,782 [73.1%] had previous cardiovascular disease) were followed for a median of 3.2 years (interquartile range, 2.2 to 4.4). A primary composite outcome event occurred in 839 of 7356 patients (11.4%; 3.7 events per 100 person-years) in the exenatide group and in 905 of 7396 patients (12.2%; 4.0 events per 100 person-years) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83 to 1.00), with the intention-to-treat analysis indicating that exenatide, administered once weekly, was noninferior to placebo with respect to safety (P<0.001 for noninferiority) but was not superior to placebo with respect to efficacy (P=0.06 for superiority). The rates of death from cardiovascular causes, fatal or nonfatal myocardial infarction, fatal or nonfatal stroke, hospitalization for heart failure, and hospitalization for acute coronary syndrome, and the incidence of acute pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer, medullary thyroid carcinoma, and serious adverse events did not differ significantly between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with type 2 diabetes with or without previous cardiovascular disease, the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events did not differ significantly between patients who received exenatide and those who received placebo