An examination of some instructional practices in selected rural secondary schools

South African learners continue to achieve poorly in mathematics in comparison to other countries. Although there are numerous factors influencing learner achievement in South Africa, the instructional practices that mathematics teachers use have a profound influence on students’ learning and achievement. One fruitful endeavour that has been used by researchers to improve students’ learning of mathematics was to investigate the state of instruction to propose alternative ways of teaching. This article examines teaching practices that were observed in three disadvantaged secondary schools in 12 lessons of eight mathematics teachers in grades 10 to 12. The results revealed that predominant instructional practices used by the teachers included homework, unproductive questioning, chorus responses, group work discussions, textbook use, teacher talk, copying and writing down answers. The findings will shed light on the kind of intervention programmes to be planned for the teachers to improve teaching and learner achievement. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n9p46