AECI-NW End of Term 1 Critical Incidents of Change-2023

Trainer: Joshua Omoniyi Oni

Manager: Mmamogo Dikgale
National Executive Director – Sharanjeet Shan

Introduction
Critical incidents of change are moments during the term where teachers and learners were moved
from not knowing to knowing. These moments occurred during classroom support visits, afternoon
clinics, workshops, co – teaching sessions and sometimes during conversations outside the
classroom.
The objectives of this report is to:
 Demonstrate active involvement of learners in classroom activities.
 Shows evidence of learners’ work progressing from not knowing to knowing.
 Demonstrate active involvement of teachers in workshop activities.
Some of the scenarios/instances are shown from both the teachers and learners:

Scenario 1

There was a misconception by this

grade 11 learner that the base 5 is a
common factor that led to the
learner factorizing the 5 out and
got the problem wrong. The
learners were assisted to identify
2017
5 as the common factor in the
numerator which can also be found
at the denominator. It was then
26
simplified and they got as the
5
final answer. Laws of indices were
also revisited as to address some of
these misconceptions.

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Scenario 2

In this scenario, majority of grade 11

learners inappropriately apply the law of
exponent/Indices that says:
b b b
y . x =(xy) . With this misconception,
learners managed to get the correct value
of x=2. Even though in this case the
exponent is not the same which made it
inappropriate for them to multiply the
bases together. The misconception was
addressed accordingly using mathematical
manipulation and appropriate laws of
exponent. Learners were able to identify
their errors or mistakes made that led them
to find the correct value of x .

Scenario 3

This learner from grade 10 failed to

factorize the expression as the learner
forgot the principle when it comes to
difference of two square. Learners were
reminded and were taking through similar
questions and at the end they were able to
provide answer to the question accurately.
4 2 2
x −16=( x −4)( x + 4)

Scenario 4

During one on one content workshop, a teacher was asked to factorise the quadratic expression. The
question was left unanswered. The teacher thought of 9 and 5 which are multiplied to give 45 but
when added or subtracted will give + 14 which was wrong. The two factors should be +15 and +3 so

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that when added and multiply will give +18 and +45 respectively. Feedback was given during the
workshop and he was able to see his mistakes.
Scenario 5

The picture shows the major

problem faced by learners when
dealing with number patterns where
learners have to calculate the
common difference and unknowns in
the sequences when the sum of terms
in the sequence were given without
the number of terms. Majority of
them failed to adequately apply
Mathematical manipulation which
led to them getting wrong answer.
Learners were taking through some
of these errors as well as approaches
to follow in solving this type of
questions until they are able to do so.

Scenario 6

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 The question was to make c subject of the formula or
relation in the equation shown in the first step. Even
though most grade 10 learners failed to deal with the
square root sign as well as dividing the other terms in
the equation with the co-efficient of c correctly resulting
to this scenario. Learners were taking through laws of
indices on how to deal with the square root sign. They
were also reminded on how to separate the variable that
has to be made the subject of the formula to one side
before dividing all the variables in the question with the
coefficient of such a variable. These made the problem
became quite easy for the learners to solve again.

Scenario 7

The picture shows the major problem faced by

the teachers when dealing with General
Solution. This teacher erroneously solve the
equation algebraically by omitting the negative
sign that resulted in the teacher unable to use
appropriate quadrants to write the general
solution during the pre-test at the content
workshop. Feedback was given where other
teachers were able to assist the colleagues with
the suitable and correct approach. Those who
struggled initially realised their mistakes and
rectified them.

Scenario 8

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 Teachers were asked to solve this question during content workshop. Majority of them failed to
realise that this is difference of two cubes after factorizing using common factor of 2. In this case
as seen, this teacher managed to factorize using the common factor but failed to factorise using
difference of two cubes. Feedback was given and those with the challenges realized their mistakes
and were able to correct them accurately.

Scenario 9

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 Teachers were asked to solve this question during content workshop. Majority of them failed to
multiply and simplify. Even though some of them multiplied but came up with wrong answer as
they failed to multiply accurately using correct signs/operations (+ or -). Feedback was given and
those with the challenges realized their mistakes and were able to correct their misconceptions
accurately.

Scenario 10

The learners were asked to solve the questions

as shown but majority got it wrong. Even
though they were taught different type of
reactions with both saturated and unsaturated
compounds, after the explanations and few
worked examples on different types of these
reactions they were able to determine the
answers as A-Substitution, B-Elimination (or
dehydrohalogenation), C-Addition (or
hydration) and D-Substitution.

Scenario 11

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 This learner failed to apply
the standard rules of
structural formulae to
arrive at the correct answer
for both reactions that took
place at A and E. After
explanation from the
teacher as well as few other
learners, this learners and
others who were struggling
managed to get the
structural formulae
correctly.

Scenario 12

The question was to make x

subject of formula in the equation
shown in the first step. One grade
10 learner failed to deal with the
square root sign correctly leading
to this wrong solution to the
problem. Laws of indices were
used to explain how to deal with
the square root sign. Then the
problem became quite easy for the
learners

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