Grade 11 Learners' Ability to Formulate Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy Questions within a Real-World Soccer Context in Tshwane, South Africa

Abstract

Learners are often tasked with activities that require them to solve problems in mathematics classrooms. Problem posing is one of the teaching strategies that can enable learners to appreciate the mathematics concepts to be extracted from familiar or everyday situations. However, problem posing, as a teaching and learning strategy, is mostly under-utilised, despite its potential to enhance mathematics learning. This article explores how Grade 11 learners pose Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy questions from a 2010 FIFA World Cup soccer match and determines the extent to which the questions posed by learners mirror the given soccer context. The study involved 42 participants, comprising 22 Mathematics and 20 Mathematical Literacy learners from a high school in the Soshanguve township in Tshwane, South Africa. Participants were selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected through a written task in which learners were given a scenario in the form of an extract from a 2010 FIFA World Cup soccer match report. The qualitative findings of the study show that learners were generally capable of posing or formulating questions based on the real-life soccer context provided. The analysis showed that (a) Mathematics learners formulated more questions with more mathematical terms in them than Mathematical Literacy learners did, and (b) Mathematical Literacy learners formulated questions that were more aligned to the analysis of the game than was the case with Mathematics learners. We argue that learners’ responses to the task were consistent with how they were socialised with the Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy discourse.