Servicio listas blancas y listas negras

To illustrate why students’ success rates in bridging mathematics are affected, we refer to the interview data, in table 4.14 regarding the 10 questions asked in the questionnaire. The 6 themes represent the crux of the interview and the 12 subthemes represent individual responses as categorised.

4.9.1.1 Experiences with mathematics

In my interview with the participants, they responded enthusiastically, participated freely and were in a relaxed mood with me as the researcher. Most of the respondents recalled bad experiences such as ‘name-calling’, negative words, and impatience, to mention a few. For example, Diamond, one of the participants said her bad experience with mathematics in the past dates back to her high school. They were supposed to go on Winter and Summer camps, the school insisted that they first had to write a mathematics test as a prerequisite to attending the camp, anyone that got less than 50% will not attend. “This was horrible; every student should have been allowed to attend the camp.” They always categorised me in the ‘stupid people’ group and made me answer questions they knew I wouldn’t be able to answer”. These bad experiences of Diamond, made her avoid mathematics ever since.

According to Zinzi, another participant, she had a bad experience with her mathematics teacher in Grade 11. “She was very mean and discouraging and made me hate mathematics. This gave me low self-esteem because she constantly shouted at us when we failed to understand the topic at hand”.

As for Mariam, when asked if any of her past lecturers either in primary or high school ever made her to dislike mathematics, she replied, “Yes, because if any of the ‘good’ students in her class understood her way of teaching mathematics, she was less concerned about the others who were struggling to understand the topic. Most students are not motivated to want to do mathematics because it requires a lot of practising and thinking and while most students are too lazy”.

Some participants like Princess said she has always had problems with mathematics right from her high school days. She confessed to her failing mathematics from 2010 up to 2012. Her reason for this was attributed to her teacher’s lack of patience when

156 explaining any topic. Mary another participant also felt that her teacher was too fast when explaining a topic and therefore, assumed mathematics is difficult.

Diana, responded, “I failed all my mathematics tests in Grade 9.” Most of her friends wanted to drop mathematics in high school; she was embarrassed to say she enjoyed the subject. Another negative experience from Carol, said, “I found it hard to grasp mathematics when I was in Grade 9,” because of a bad experience in Grade 3 class with her teacher who called her “Stupid” as a result of her not understanding long division. This made her avoid anything involving calculation since then.

Precious said, “My grade 9 experience in Mathematics was the worst, as my teacher was very discouraging saying negative words about me, and failed to explain to us in a manner that we would all understand.” This led her to changing over to mathematics literacy.

Gift said he did not perform well in grade 9 because, “I found mathematics to be very challenging at the time. I often had low marks; many of my friends experienced the same challenges, forcing us all to change to mathematics literacy for fear of failing.” He was not particularly sure what led to his dismal performance in mathematics.

4.9.1.2 Attitude and lack of motivation to do mathematics

In an interview with Khetiwe one of the respondents, she said, “I have never had a bad experience with mathematics, but I have a bad attitude towards it. Mathematics was just difficult and due to this perception of mine I have never thought to change my way of thinking.”

When some of the participants were asked, what in their opinion made students unmotivated to want to do mathematics related courses? These were some of the findings. Stan feels, “Students have a negative attitude towards the subject, but lecturers could make the subject interesting.” Ovalar, agrees with Stan, “The subject is boring sometimes and it would be nice if group work is allowed in class to make for sharing of ideas.”

157 Phosta, Mariam and Kikhulu asserted that, “Students are not motivated to do mathematics related courses because it involves numbers; anything with numbers is challenging and involves a lot of practice with logical thinking.” However, they feel students must be encouraged to do more projects with more practices for success. Mariam personally feels, there should be a top-10 list for every class test done as motivation.

Another participant, Mariam, feels, “Mathematics is tricky and students find it difficult to practice because they are lazy.” She said mathematics should be fun but she does not know how to make it fun.

4.9.1.3 Mathematics versus mathematics literacy

Carol pointed out that the basic teaching in high school is no longer the same; she feels there should not be mathematics literacy, only mathematics. She thinks a lot of the students who perform badly in bridging mathematics are from the mathematics literacy group. She said, “If mathematics is taught basically as mathematics and not anything else right from high school, then students will have a better understanding of what is expected of them because of a good foundation.” Another participant Hossy, said, “Mathematics should be compulsory during high school years, not a choice.”

Hope on the other hand, responded by saying that, “Most students here at the Pre- degree programme chose mathematics literacy in high school and the fact that now they have to switch to university mathematics is not only challenging but more complicated. Students need to change their perception that because its ‘university mathematics’, it’s more difficult, but rather think of how they can excel in the module by seeking assistance from their lecturers for consultation times or telling lecturers to spend more time on specific topics for clarity.”

4.9.1.4 Teaching Strategies and Learning Resources

With regards to the lecturers’ methods of teaching, the use of mathematics study guides and text books, the participants were asked if they felt either of these could be improved upon to encourage better success rates in bridging mathematics. The following were just some of the comments made.

158 Lerato, a participant, stated that, “The textbook used for bridging mathematics is not explicit enough in its explanations, so I prefer taking notes in class and using the study guide.” She said further that, “The lecturers are not the problem, its the resources being used.”

Judging from all the mixed comments regarding the study materials, some participants feel that the study materials are “good and can be rated 8 out of 10”, “they are up to standard”, others believe “it gives guidelines and has various challenging questions required to be done as exercises”. Someone said, “They are just informative and straight to the point”, or “they are very good and self- explanatory”. On the other hand, some comments included, “the study guide is almost useless in my opinion, it does not fully explain a topic”, or “the red textbook does not explain clearly, so I prefer taking notes from the study guides”.

With regards to the teaching methods of the lecturers, and what needs to be done by them, the participants had the following to say: “The more varied methods we are taught to solving a problem the better”, “...show us other ways because not everyone has the same learning method”, other responses included, “I think one method is fine, I get easily confused when too many methods are being explained”, “…our lecturers are very pushy, I love that”, or “they are not spending enough time with us they should add more periods to the timetable”. One participant tried to view the question from another angle, “The lecturers are doing all they can, it is the students who are not willing to put in their best”. Another response given was that “…there is nothing left for my lecturer to do, they are doing their best” as well as, “Time management is a problem, they do not spend a lot of time on a topic and do not give 100% of their attention”.