Abstract
M.Ed. (Educational Psychology)
South African children across the various school grades have been consistently demonstrating poor levels of performance in maths over the past several decades. This study focuses on how early cognitive characteristics, more specifically executive functions (EFs, contribute to young children’s maths performance. This study incorporates a theoretical stance derived from three interlinking disciplinary approaches to the investigation of child development: Psychology, Neuroscience and Pedagogy.
There are presumably numerous causative factors which contribute to the overall low maths performance of learners within the South African context. However, this study explores one specific focus which has been gaining increasing global awareness over the last decade – that being whether executive functioning (EF) in early childhood predicts maths performance. As part of my literature review, I refer to studies which show that there is a strong connection between EFs and maths performance in pre-school years. However, since the majority of studies on EFs and their correlation with maths performance have been conducted within westernised first world countries, it is fundamental to explore this correlation within the South African context. This study is, thus, an observational correlational study, which investigates the relationship between dependent measures (maths performance) and independent measures (EFs).
This study set out to investigate whether EFs in Grade R learners predict maths performance, using direct and teachers’ assessments of EFs and maths performance. Two EF measures and three maths measures were utilised with 46 Grade R learners from two middle-income private independent IEB schools in Johannesburg within a three-week time frame. A mixed methods approach was employed to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data was collected and analysed in order to evaluate the hypothesis of this study, which is that EFs in Grade R learners are positively related to their maths performance. Qualitative analyses were used to support the findings of the quantitative data, as well as to provide further insight into this study.
The four coherent themes abstracted from the quantitative and qualitative data reveal that EFs in Grade R learners predict maths performance. This finding necessitates that suitable and effective intervention programmes be implemented in Grade R classes, not only to establish these children’s basic maths abilities but also to promote the development of their EFs.