Enhancing South African Mathematics Teachers’ Big Ideas Knowledge and Self-Directed Learning: A blended Learning Professional Development Intervention

The South African school mathematics curricula does not emphasize the big ideas, these are only briefly mentioned and there is no elaboration on the benefits of teaching according to the big ideas. Additionally, professional development for school teachers in South Africa does not focus on teaching according to the big ideas in mathematics. Hence, the principal intention of this research was to ascertain how to enhance mathematics teachers’ self-directed learning, by developing knowledge of big ideas in mathematics. Within a blended learning professional development programme, the study conceptualizes teachers’ engagement with the big ideas in mathematics, utilizing self-directed learning as the guiding framework. This basic qualitative empirical study purposively selected all the Senior Phase and Further Education and Training mathematics teachers at a school (n = 5). Data was generated from an initial and concluding focus-group interview and activity submissions from a blended learning professional development programme. The study’s findings suggested it was effective in developing the participants’ self-directed learning characteristics, collaboration, lifelong learning and increased motivation. Simultaneously, the acquisition of big ideas knowledge resulted in improved curriculum continuity, initiated teachers to relook at the way that they teach mathematics to promote a more coherent and integrated learning experience, highlighted the real-world relevance and encouraged them to self-direct their learning in the future. Consequently, this study has the potential to close the identified gap in literature and to form the basis for designing and creating in-service professional development programmes and possibly even pre-service training programmes for mathematics teachers in the future.