Stance Marking Tools in Vanuatu Mathematics Education: Towards a Gèlagèl Framework

Abstract

This exploratory research attempts to provide insights into the problem of underachievement in school mathematics in Vanuatu. Official reports show that Ni-Vanuatu children perform better in subjects other than mathematics across school levels. This ongoing problem of underachievement in school mathematics has been a concern that needs to be addressed. In exploring this issue, this study investigates the status of teachers‘ problem posing pedagogy and the use of stance marking tools in the Vanuatu education system through a wide investigation base including policy and curriculum documents (e.g., syllabuses, and textbooks), planning practices, and classroom discourse (e.g., environment, activities, and gestures). The literature suggests that the use of stance marking tools such as questioning could promote learning environments conducive to problem posing. Taking an interpretivist-constructivist paradigm, the study employs qualitative case study research design. The study uses multiple data collection methods including document analysis of curriculum documents and lesson plans, observation and video recording of lessons, and semi-structured interviews. The research engaged fourteen teachers drawn from three case schools, and eight officials in Port Vila Vanuatu. Data was gathered over a period of two months in 2009. It was found that the education system gives insufficient attention to problem posing pedagogy in the way mathematics is manifested in Vanuatu current curriculum documents. Learning materials, planning practices, and classroom discourse were found to perpetuate traditional Western mathematics teaching methods, for example, teacher-centred learning whereby learning is mostly by rote. The study also found that Vanuatu indigenous ways of learning are often not reflected or considered in classrooms, potentially alienating indigenous students‘ mathematics learning from their worldviews and cultural practices thus making learning difficult for them. The implication of the findings is that Vanuatu indigenous ways of learning, which are student-centred in nature - for example, the notion of trial and error - must be considered in the curriculum. Hence, the study proposes a Gèlagèl framework. The Gèlagèl framework stipulates five metaphors of learning and is offered as a culturally appropriate means of addressing the implications of the findings towards enhancing problem solving, focussing on mathematics teaching and learning in Vanuatu.