The agency of mathematics clubs as panacea for efficacious pedagogical praxis: A grade 3 case study

Mathematics is, universally, considered the heartbeat of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematical (STEM) education. Accordingly, the learners must be equipped with strong mathematical proficiency very early in life. This behoves mathematics practitioners to use various impactful pedagog...

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Main Authors: Headman Hebe, Gasenakeletso Hebe
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Muhammadiyah University Press 2025-01-01
Series:Journal of Research and Advances in Mathematics Education
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals2.ums.ac.id/index.php/jramathedu/article/view/6398
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author Headman Hebe
Gasenakeletso Hebe
author_facet Headman Hebe
Gasenakeletso Hebe
author_sort Headman Hebe
collection DOAJ
description Mathematics is, universally, considered the heartbeat of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematical (STEM) education. Accordingly, the learners must be equipped with strong mathematical proficiency very early in life. This behoves mathematics practitioners to use various impactful pedagogical strategies. The bigger action research from which this paper derives investigated, through the use of qualitative and quantitative approaches, the potential of mathematics clubs as a strategy to improve learner performance in early childhood education (ECE).  Since there is already a published report on the bigger study, this paper focuses only on teasing out the factors that enabled the success of the maths clubs which participated in this study. The current study is essential because the literature reviewed underscores a paucity of research that focuses on factors enabling the efficacy of maths clubs. This  qualitative study relied on interviews with participant-teachers and observations by the field researcher. Vygotsky’s sociocultural framework and the Appreciative Inquiry model underpinned and guided the study. The findings of this study indicate the following as efficacy-enablers in maths clubs:  play-based pedagogy, code-switching, the use of real-life scenarios in pedagogy, learner independence in problem-solving, participant collaboration and small classroom sizes. The study advocates for more research on factors enabling effectiveness in maths clubs and challenges policy decision-makers to transform everyday classroom settings to model mathematics clubs scenarios.
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spelling doaj-art-b366d6679fac4c02aecc37f179b85c872025-08-20T03:17:27ZengMuhammadiyah University PressJournal of Research and Advances in Mathematics Education2503-36972025-01-01415410.23917/jramathedu.v10i1.63986428The agency of mathematics clubs as panacea for efficacious pedagogical praxis: A grade 3 case studyHeadman Hebe0Gasenakeletso Hebe1University of South AfricaUniversity of South AfticaMathematics is, universally, considered the heartbeat of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematical (STEM) education. Accordingly, the learners must be equipped with strong mathematical proficiency very early in life. This behoves mathematics practitioners to use various impactful pedagogical strategies. The bigger action research from which this paper derives investigated, through the use of qualitative and quantitative approaches, the potential of mathematics clubs as a strategy to improve learner performance in early childhood education (ECE).  Since there is already a published report on the bigger study, this paper focuses only on teasing out the factors that enabled the success of the maths clubs which participated in this study. The current study is essential because the literature reviewed underscores a paucity of research that focuses on factors enabling the efficacy of maths clubs. This  qualitative study relied on interviews with participant-teachers and observations by the field researcher. Vygotsky’s sociocultural framework and the Appreciative Inquiry model underpinned and guided the study. The findings of this study indicate the following as efficacy-enablers in maths clubs:  play-based pedagogy, code-switching, the use of real-life scenarios in pedagogy, learner independence in problem-solving, participant collaboration and small classroom sizes. The study advocates for more research on factors enabling effectiveness in maths clubs and challenges policy decision-makers to transform everyday classroom settings to model mathematics clubs scenarios.https://journals2.ums.ac.id/index.php/jramathedu/article/view/6398early childhood educationmathematicsmathematics clubsplay-based pedagogy
spellingShingle Headman Hebe
Gasenakeletso Hebe
The agency of mathematics clubs as panacea for efficacious pedagogical praxis: A grade 3 case study
Journal of Research and Advances in Mathematics Education
early childhood education
mathematics
mathematics clubs
play-based pedagogy
title The agency of mathematics clubs as panacea for efficacious pedagogical praxis: A grade 3 case study
title_full The agency of mathematics clubs as panacea for efficacious pedagogical praxis: A grade 3 case study
title_fullStr The agency of mathematics clubs as panacea for efficacious pedagogical praxis: A grade 3 case study
title_full_unstemmed The agency of mathematics clubs as panacea for efficacious pedagogical praxis: A grade 3 case study
title_short The agency of mathematics clubs as panacea for efficacious pedagogical praxis: A grade 3 case study
title_sort agency of mathematics clubs as panacea for efficacious pedagogical praxis a grade 3 case study
topic early childhood education
mathematics
mathematics clubs
play-based pedagogy
url https://journals2.ums.ac.id/index.php/jramathedu/article/view/6398
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