Abstract
M.Ed.
The research conducted for the purpose of this study clearly showed that outcomes-based education (OBE) potentially offers a remedy for this country's ineffective education system which often fails to equip learners adequately to face the future with confidence and achieve success in the adult world. OBE enables each learner to achieve optimally within the limitations of his/her personal ability and prepares learners for life after school. Since teachers play a vital role in the successful implementation of OBE, it is essential that they should truly understand this paradigm shift and should wholeheartedly support the accompanying change in focus.
In teaching mathematics, the aim is that the learner should understand it well enough to actually apply mathematic principles in everyday life. To start with, a special effort should be made to make the syllabus content more meaningful by showing learners how their knowledge of mathematics can be applied in everyday situations and how it can be of value once they have left school. Once the OBE approach has been implemented, Mathematics pupils will be much more skilled when they leave school. In addition to being able to use their knowledge of mathematics confidently, they will have achieved a higher level of emotional maturity, which is an important asset, regardless of whether they continue their studies at a tertiary institution or enter the world of work. Teachers who consider OBE in this light will find that the change-over is much easier.
The best way to prepare for the new system of education is undoubtedly to read as much as possible about it and to access any other available sources of information. Once a person has accepted and embraced the idea of OBE, he/she will find that the many new related terms an phrases are much easier to understand. This can then be followed by practical implementation, which will demand that teachers design their own strategies for the effective achievement of specific outcomes by their pupils. Much more than ever before teachers will have to develop their entrepreneurial skills, and this should be an exciting experience! The urgent need for a more effective approach to teaching in South Africa is spelled out most clearly by the poor results obtained in Mathematics at school level, and by the anxiety generally associated with the study of this subject. As a result relatively few learners are interested in continuing their studies in the fields of mathematics and science, which will inevitably lead to a critical shortage of skilled engineers, economists, etc.