'n Ondersoek na die onderrig van rekenkunde in die laerskool met verwysing na die begaafde leerlinge en na die nuwe benadering in rekenkundeonderrig

Abstract

Every individual has his own interpretation of the facts and the aims envisaged in education. This interpretation is closely related to his own view of life and consequently it was considered necessary to state right at the beginning what the author's interpretation is of the term “education". It was furthermore, considered necessary to define the term “gifted”. In this study the child’s intelligence as well as his achievements in arithmetic were used as criteria in order to identify those gifted. After comparing the variation coefficients of school marks and the marks achieved in I.Q., tests, it was found that the distribution of school marks was much wider than the distribution of the I.Q.’s. This tendency was also discovered when the achievements in scholastic tests were compared with the I.Q.’s. In order to determine to which extent pupils performed according to their individual abilities, the sample was divided into different groups according to the I.Q.'s. The achievements of the different groups according to school marks as well as scholastic tests were compared with the field of expected performance. A number of important results were found. The following divisions were made: i. The group as a whole; ii. The sexes apart; iii. The standards apart; iv. The pupils grouped according to standard and age; v. Sample divided according to the number of schools attended by the pupils. In all these divisions it was found that the achievements of pupils with higher intellectual abilities were relatively weak in school marks as well as in scholastic tests. In contrast it was found that the achievements of pupils with lower intellectual abilities were relatively high. The pupils with average abilities usually performed on an average level. The study also proved that age as well as the number of schools attended by the pupils definitely influenced their achievements. The differences between the traditional approach and the new approach to the teaching of arithmetic were pointed out by using a number of examples. The expectation is that the new approach should bring the achievements of the more intelligent pupils in accordance with their abilities. Acceleration, enrichment and homogeneous groupings are possible procedures which may be used in order to bring the achievements of the more intelligent pupils in accordance with their abilities. The practical implementation of, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of these procedures were investigated in detail. It was ascertained in this study that all pupils, because of their individual differences, cannot be taught according to one method. It is, therefore suggested that differentiation or segregation according to abilities and achievements be adopted.