The Wits Maths Connect projects focus on improving mathematics in learning through teacher development in maths education, based on robust research.
The Wits Maths Connect Primary project is funded by the FirstRand Foundation, Anglo American, Rand Merchant Bank and the Department of Science and Technology.
It contains several interventions, such as:
- Maths Circles for primary school teachers to work on mathematics together.
- Multiplicative Reasoning Project for a pedagogic intervention that uses research-based changes to lesson structures and designs in the primary school classroom.
- I Hate Maths Project focuses on maths games and cards to make maths more engaging and fun.
- Various teaching resources and materials are available free to maths teachers.
- This article by Research Outreach outlines how the Wits Maths Connect Primary project team work with ten schools in disadvantaged areas.
The Wits Maths Connect Secondary Project uses research insights to improve mathematics learning through secondary school teachers’ professional development and to research related problems and processes. The focus in on Grades 8 to 10, where a teacher’s knowledge dramatically impacts their learners’ success at this key point in their education.
One important aim is to increase the number of learners who take mathematics as a subject into matric, through various research-based interventions. Their year-long teaching course is their major intervention with teachers. They also work with subject advisors.
A key resource goal is to develop a framework for quality maths teaching in South Africa. The project collaborates with the Gauteng Department of Education. It is located in the Wits School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, and funded by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and First Rand Foundation (FRF). It is administered by the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) within the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) framework.
