Association between teacher confidence and student mathematics outcomes

Teacher attributes such as teacher’s confidence in knowledge are important in the ability to teach. It is further, expected in developing countries that teachers from high socio-economic schools are highly confident in teaching mathematics whilst teachers from low socioeconomic schools are expected to be less confident. Hence, teacher attributes decisions are of great importance in achieving skills development goals. The realisation of the impact teachers’ confidence has on mathematics performance requires an investigation based on multilateral measures of teacher confidence. The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyse the impact of teacher abilities on student’s performance on mathematics in South Africa, this will be realised through an analysis of teacher confidence as the main variable and teacher qualifications, teacher characteristics and socio economic status as controlling variables. The study employed Trends in International Mathematics and Sciences studies (TIMSS) 2011 cross sectional data for South Africa. Descriptive statistics, inferential statistics and the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) econometric technique were employed in analysing the data. The empirical results revealed that majority of South African teachers rated themselves highly confident but showed no significant impact in the performance of students. This implies that South African teachers who produce poor student’s performance are not open about their lack of confidence in teaching mathematics. However, from the student’s perspective, teacher confidence showed a strong impact on students’ performance in mathematics. The third findings were that, teachers who are happy as educators do not have a significant impact at all. The empirical results also revealed that teachers who felt they wee being allocated more than enough time to teach mathematics showed a strong negative relationship with student performance when compared to teachers who felt otherwise. The findings from the study imply that an open policy should be encouraged in which teachers are encouraged to openly express their views and any shortcomings. This will make it easier to identify the best intervention strategy on helping the teachers. Based on the findings again, it is encouraged that periodic training of mathematical teachers be encouraged. This is likely to boost teacher’s confidence and improve the mathematical results in the country

The Causes of the Fluctuation in the Exchange Rate in South Africa

ABSTRACT This study uses the OLS estimation method to analyse the factors that determine exchange rate variation in South Africa. Two groups of explanatory variables are used: the first group comes from extant empirical studies and the other group consists of new variables. The analysis of existing variables reveals that the variables are individually and jointly insignificant. The explanatory variables used in the regression include Gross Domestic Product, Consumer Price Index and Inflation Rate. Quarterly data for these variables are used in the estimation. The second regression uses the following explanatory variables: South Africa’s Foreign Reserves, South Africa’s Total Money Stock, South Africa’s Prime Overdraft Rate and the USA Interest rate. According to the results, all the variables but one (South Africa’s Foreign Reserves) are found to be statistically significant. The coefficient of determination was remarkably higher than the one obtained from the first regression. The study calls for the South African policymakers to increase the interest rate in order to reverse the adverse effects of steady depreciation that has been experienced in the exchange rate recently