The African Institute of Mathematical Sciences: professional development for teachers of mathematics

Presented by Toni Beardon, Claire Blackman & Barrie Barnard

Mathematics and Science education in post-apartheid South Africa is in crisis, the standards in the majority of schools have not improved since 1994 and South Africa ranks 148th out of 148 countries for its Maths and Science education according to the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014. This talk comments on the tension between reform through legislation and reform through personal and institutional vision-building.

AIMS is an expanding pan-African research initiative with institutes in South Africa, Ghana, Senegal and Cameroon and the unique feature that its masters and teacher professional development courses are largely taught by a team of experts from around the world on an unpaid voluntary basis.

AIMSSEC (the part of AIMS that relates to teacher education) is one of the partners with CRiME in the EU Science in Society FASMED research on improving progress for low achievers through formative assessment and the use of technology in science and mathematics education. In 2012 AIMSSEC won the UNESCO-Hamdan prize for outstanding practice and performance in enhancing the effectiveness of teachers within marginalized or disadvantaged communities. One of the challenges for the European partners in FASMED is to test whether their methods are effective in the developing world.