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OLICO Maths Education

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OLICO’s Diepsloot Matrics beat the odds with an 82% Pure Maths Pass-rate

January 5, 2018 By Andrew

It is with great pride that OLICO announces our Diepsloot matrics achieved an 82% pass-rate for pure mathematics with two-thirds scoring in the Top 20% of maths performers nationally. Overall, OLICO learners achieved 55% Bachelor Level passes and 27% Diploma Level passes. 

The Diepsloot matric class of 2017 first joined OLICO in 2013 as Grade 8 learners seeking extra maths support. On first enrolment, these learners were approximately 3-4 years below their expected maths grade level (which coheres with Kotze and Spaull, 2015). In Grade 9, this group scored an average of just 24% on the 2014 Annual National Assessments (ANAs) for maths.

OLICO’s multi-year approach is to build core foundational skills and gradually deepen conceptual understanding over an extended period of time. OLICO’s matric class of 2017 dedicated significant proportions of their after-school lives, over many years, to improving their maths competencies.

OLICO’s Programme Coordinator, Andrew Barrett adds, “Given the realities of the schooling maths situation in South Africa, the time and support available during school hours is simply not sufficient to cover all that needs to be covered so OLICO’s after-school support and blended use of technology is one way in which we can supplement the work of the teacher.”

Ultimately, 82% of OLICO’s Diepsloot matric learners passed pure mathematics compared to only 19% of their Diepsloot peers.

Further to this, two-thirds of OLICO’s learners scored above 50% in pure mathematics which puts them into the top 20% of maths achievers across South Africa. 

This 2017 matric class in Diepsloot is part of a larger group of 155 learners between Grades 7-12 who receive extra maths support after-school 2-3 times a week. The improvements are the result of intensive work on number skills and supplementary curriculum support with OLICO’s freely available online maths tool and tailored tutoring support.

OLICO learner, Boledi Mampa believes OLICO made a huge difference to her maths results, “I joined OLICO 5 years ago and today I got my Bachelor Level matric certificate. It’s been great being part of OLICO as it’s helped me pursue my dream which is to study Environmental Science at the University of Johannesburg this year.”

Likewise, her classmates Lebogang Mafa and Mokgadi Morwasehla believe OLICO has helped them unlock their potential and achieve her goals. Says Lebogang,

My maths was poor when I first joined but by practicing with OLICO’s support, my results have really improved. I want to start a new life at university where I’m looking to pursue a BSC degree.

 

Intervening Early.

There is no quick-fix or simple solution to improving South African maths results but there are clear indications that intensive multi-year support in an after-school setting can achieve substantial improvements. At OLICO, we use a custom-built online maths programme (http://learn.olico.org) with our Grade 7-9 learners alongside skilled maths tutors to supplement learning. This online maths tool is published under a creative commons licence and contains over 22,000+ unique interactive maths questions and 330 tutorial videos specifically tailored for South African senior phase maths. The belief is that establishing firm foundations and good number sense is essential for future maths success.

The South African Education challenge

Some excellent articles on the maths situation in South Africa:

Nicky Roberts: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-01-08-school-maths-what-is-our-story/#.WHSakxt96Uk

Paul Berkowitz: http://mg.co.za/article/2017-01-06-the-difference-between-achievement-and-excellence-mathematics-results-for-the-nsc 

Nic Spaull: https://nicspaull.com/2018/01/05/explaining-the-matric-results-in-7-gifs/ 

Beyond Diepsloot

In addition to the 155 Grade 7-12 learners in Diepsloot,  OLICO is also working in 5 schools in the Western Cape on the Year Beyond programme and has over 5000 learners enrolled on the FREE online maths program for Grades 7-9 at http://learn.olico.org. OLICO is also working on a younger intervention through Maths Clubs in collaboration with the SA numeracy Chair Project at Rhodes University and the Maths Clubs Collective (www.mathsclubs.co.za).

With grateful thank to our supporters:

OLICO is deeply grateful to our donor partners who have helped make this happen. including: The Datatec Education and Technology Trust, The Learning Trust, Hatch, The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, The Claude Leon Foundation and the Nedbank Private Wealth Educational Foundation.

Filed Under: News, Reports, Stories

Help Fund Christine’s University Fees

June 30, 2017 By Andrew

Help us turn a GREAT story into an INCREDIBLE story.

In the past few weeks, Christine’s personal story has featured in a WEF article and on EWN. When she was in Grade 8, Christine joined OLICO with a maths mark of just 24%. With 5 years of support form OLICO and a lot of hard work and commitment from Christine, she matriculated last year in the top 20% of maths performers in the country. She’s now pursuing a BSC in BioChemistry at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.

However, despite massive efforts and multiple appeals, she hasn’t been able to receive support from NSFAS to access the funding required to pay for her studies. Her mom is the sole-breadwinner after Christine’s dad passed away 11 years ago. Her family is assisting her with living expenses and OLICO is assisting with accommodation but we need help to pay her tuition fees of R35 000. Please consider making a donation. 

[one_half]Donate via Snapscan:

[/one_half][one_half_last]

Or Donate via EFT

Standard Bank
Account number: 000928852
Branch code: 002305
Branch: Carlton Centre
Ref: Fund Christine

All donations are tax deductible. Please email info@olico.org with proof of payment and we’ll write up a Section 18A receipt.[/one_half_last]

 

Filed Under: News, Stories

100% Matric Pass-rate. Top 20% Maths Nationally.

January 10, 2017 By Andrew

It is with great pride that OLICO announces a 100% matric pass-rate (83% Bachelor Level passes) with our learners achieving in the top 20% maths results nationally.

In 2012, OLICO began working with a group of Grade 8 learners in Diepsloot who have now graduated as members of our first-ever matric cohort of 2016. The matric class in Diepsloot is part of a larger group of 145 learners between Grades 7-12 who receive extra maths and literacy support twice a week. On first enrolment, our 2016 matric class had a mathematics average of just 18%. The latest matric results show that OLICO learners have dramatically increased their maths marks with 83% achieving marks of above 50% in pure mathematics which puts them into the top 20% maths achievers across South Africa. These improvements are the result of intensive work on foundational number skills and supplementary curriculum support with OLICO’s freely available online maths tool and tailored tutoring support.

2017-01-09-photo-00000008OLICO learner, Patience Moyo believes OLICO made a huge difference to her maths results, “When I first joined OLICO, my maths was poor but by practicing with OLICO’s support, my results have really improved. I want to start a new life at university and graduate as a psychologist to help people and be an example of what success is to my community.”

OLICO’s Maths Coordinator, Dr Lynn Bowie adds, “Over the past 5 years, these learners have worked tirelessly to improve their maths skills and deserve all the credit they’re now receiving. In short, their commitment and dedication has been outstanding and they are reaping the rewards. For many learners, the time and support available in school hours is simply not sufficient to cover all that needs to be covered so OLICO’s after-school support and blended use of technology is one way in which we can supplement the work of the teacher.”

Likewise, her classmates Roda Chitegha and Christine Ngwenya believe OLICO has helped them unlock their potential and achieve her goals. Says Roda, “Coming to OLICO in the afternoons since Grade 8 has helped to keep myself away from trouble and temptation that faces the youth of Diepsloot. OLICO has helped ensure my results at school are always good and I can go to university. I have registered for a BSC but this is not my only dream, I also want to see myself as a role model to others that matric success in maths is indeed possible.”

 

image1-lr
OLICO’s Thandiswa Nxelle (middle) with matric learners Christine Ngwenya and Roda Chitegha

No Short-cuts to improving Maths Results.

There is no short-cut, quick-fix or silver bullet to improving South African maths results but there are clear indications that intensive multi-year support in an after-school setting can achieve substantial improvements. At OLICO, we use a custom-built online maths programme (http://learn.olico.org) with our Grade 7-9 learners alongside skilled maths tutors to supplement learning. This online maths tool is published under a creative commons licence and contains over 20,000+ unique interactive maths questions and 330 tutorial videos specifically tailored for South African senior phase maths. The belief is that establishing firm foundations and good number sense is essential for future maths success.

The South African Maths challenge

Some excellent articles on the maths situation in South Africa:

Nicky Roberts: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-01-08-school-maths-what-is-our-story/#.WHSakxt96Uk

Paul Berkowitz: http://mg.co.za/article/2017-01-06-the-difference-between-achievement-and-excellence-mathematics-results-for-the-nsc 

Nic Spaull: https://nicspaull.com/2017/01/06/my-take-on-matric-2016/ 

Beyond Diepsloot

In addition to the 145 Grade 7-12 learners in Diepsloot,  OLICO is also working in 8 schools in the Western Cape on the Year Beyond programme and has over 2000 learners enrolled on the FREE online maths program for Grades 7-9 at http://learn.olico.org.

With grateful thank to our supporters:

OLICO is deeply grateful to our donor partners who have helped make this happen. including: The Datatec Education and Technology Trust, The Learning Trust, Hatch, The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, The Claude Leon Foundation and, most recently, the Nedbank Private Wealth Educational Foundation.

Filed Under: News, Reports, Stories

No to violence against women and children: #16daysofactivism

December 2, 2016 By Maxine

img-20161130-wa0002  OLICO Youth cares about more than only our learners’ academics. We ran a collaborative workshop with 50 learners in Diepsloot about preventing gender-based violence. The workshop was help on 30 November 2016 and with sessions by OLICO Youth, Sonke Gender Justice, and Section 27 team members. Funded by the Foundation of Human Rights, this interactive learning experience formed part of the international campaign of 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children.

It was a sweltering day, even under the shelter of the tent,  but learners engaged enthusiastically and critically with issues of gender equality and violence prevention. We explored the relationship between gender roles and sexual violence, looking at the invisible messages all around which tell us how men and women should behave and which normalise gender based violence. Many of our learners reflected that although these messages can be powerful, we don’t have to adhere to gender roles which encourage aggression in men and subservience in women.

wp_20161130_12_32_38_proTina from Section 27 and Nthabi from Sonke Gender Justice then led a workshop on sexual violence and what processes to take if you have been abused sexually. Finally, the workshop ended after brainstorming ideas on how to prevent gender-based violence at the individual and collective level. The learners suggested ideas such as rejecting harmful gender roles, and coming together as a collective to protest against gender based violence.

OLICO Youth is proud of our learners that represented us at the event. We are also grateful to have been given this opportunity to co-host a workshop on such an important issue especially in a community so heavily affected by sexual violence.

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Filed Under: News

OLICO’s FREE online maths for Grades 7, 8 and 9

November 28, 2016 By Andrew

maths practice for grade 7 8 9 south africa

OLICO is thrilled to announce the launch of our GRADE 7, 8 AND 9 ONLINE MATHS PROGRAM which is now officially open to the public.

REGISTER FOR FREE: LEARN.OLICO.ORG

. 

OLICO’s online maths tool has been in development for nearly 5 years and contains over 20 000 unique interactive maths questions and 330 tutorial videos. This maths content is aligned to the South African CAPS-curriculum and rooted in the South African context.

Developed by Dr Lynn Bowie and a team of experienced education specialists, OLICO’s online maths tool is a useful supplement to learners, teachers, tutors or parents tackling grade 7, 8 and 9 mathematics. Says Lynn, “In grades 7 to 9 learners need to make the crucial transition from working with number and shape to laying the foundations of algebra and geometry. For many learners, the time and support available in school hours will simply not be sufficient to do this so OLICO’s online offering is one way in which we can supplement the work of the teacher.”

OLICO is calling on schools, teachers, after-school centres and NGOs who are interested in collaborating on this project to make contact. A core desire of OLICO is to develop and support a resource that is useful for teaching both in the classroom and in an after-school environment.

Filed Under: News, OLICO Maths, Resources Tagged With: "south africa", diepsloot, elearning, grade 7, grade 8, grade 9, mathematics, maths, non profit

Seven Tensions we’re experiencing using technology

October 11, 2015 By Andrew

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There is an instant appeal to the notion of using technology to improve academic outcomes in our schools, particularly in key gateway subjects like mathematics. The pronouncements of new tech-based initiatives often generate a significant amount of hype and excitement which is also often accompanied by bold proclamations of what technology is able to achieve. For the past 4 years, we’ve been using tech-based solutions to improve senior phase mathematics at OLICO Youth in Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg. While we’re seeing strong improvements in academic performance, it is clear to us that technology is no silver bullet. In fact, in our experience, there are a number of important tensions we wrestle with on an almost daily basis. Some of these tensions are discussed below and shared in the hope that these experiences might be helpful to others too. We’d love to hear your experiences.

The Advantages of Technology

There are, without doubt, many positive aspects of technology in education and many reasons to be excited about what technology can help achieve. Perhaps most notably, and obviously, learners LOVE using tech-based solutions and adapt very quickly to whatever is put in front of them. Using technology, 45 Grade 7 learners from Diepsloot have tackled a combined total of over 100,000 maths questions this year alone (Feb-Aug 2015). It certainly would have been a lot harder to achieve anything of a similar magnitude using paper-based alternatives. So from the perspective of a significant improvements in “time-on-task”, technology offers exciting opportunities.

In addition, the interactivity of technology enables learners to receive immediate and personalised feedback to questions they’re attempting. The ability to watch video explanations and pause and repeat as necessary creates a safe self-paced learning environment. It is also clear that the wealth of analytical data available to a skilled teacher/tutor can have extremely positive implications for future lesson plans and targeted interventions.

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Tensions we experience and things we’re beginning to learn.

The way in which we work at OLICO Youth has involved a cycle of planning, implementation, reflection, revision and improvement. Here we document some of the tensions we have had to face in the process and some of the lessons we’ve extracted in dealing with these tensions.

Initially, we relied heavily on Khan Academy content (www.khanacademy.org) and learners were guided in terms of which Khan Academy videos to watch and then practiced using the online exercises that followed. However, this quickly led to our first major tension.

Tension 1: Using already existing materials vs. developing our own

Khan Academy (henceforth: KA) is an impressive resource, but increasingly we found that we wanted videos and questions more suited to the South African context and curriculum. We also found it increasingly difficult to keep track of learners and prevent them from engaging on activities we didn’t want them to. For example, learners would often follow the automated prompts from KA which is aligned to the US common core curriculum and not always helpful to our context. For learners new to computers and the internet, sites like KA can also be quite overwhelming and difficult to self-direct. This is further complicated by the different uses of maths terminology which generally created as much confusion in our learners as we were trying to solve. Our broad conclusion is that KA is a decent resource for learners with well-developed meta-cognition skills. The over-riding priority for our learners however, is to first bridge the gaps in foundational content knowledge before learners can effectively make use of sites like KA and other existing online resources.[1]

Our solution then has been to use the open-source learning management system, Moodle, and build our own much more restricted course content and structure. All the content we’ve subsequently developed is published under a creative commons license and free to share. The core of the online programme is still videos and questions banks (although these are now custom-built for our learners), but the use of the Moodle has also enabled us to include online games, where appropriate, and responsive web-based tools for visual representation of topics like number lines and fractions. Our Moodle is hosted online at http://learn.olico.org[2] where interested parties can self-register on many of the courses. Enrollment keys are available from learn@olico.org.

Tension 2: Working on computers vs. working with pen and paper

Early on, we discovered that it is possible for a learner to achieve a high level of mastery on the computer in a particular topic, but then struggle with the same topic on a paper based test. There are a couple of possible reasons for this: Firstly it seems that it is possible to get into a rhythm on the computer that, if not checked, can create an illusion of conceptual understanding. Secondly, short answer or multiple choice responses tend to predominate in computer-based environments. This means the kind of responses that require a clear exposition of the steps or a logical argument are backgrounded. However, the “working out” is a very important part of what learners will be assessed on in mathematics, and the ability to reflect on it is crucial to the learning process.[3]

To counteract this, the importance of learners completing homework in their OLICO booklets and regular sets of mixed written exercises, termed ‘5-a-day’, is emphasised. In addition, the “pause and review” section of the lesson plans involves a paper-based checkpoint for learners to complete offline and only later feed into the computer for feedback.

The dual nature of the checkpoints (i.e. written with pen and paper offline, but then fed into the computer for immediate feedback) provides very useful information for the facilitator. Moodle is able to provide immediate statistics on class performance – including a breakdown by question. The facilitator is able to easily identify problem areas that need to be worked on with the class as a whole. In addition, the individual written work allows the facilitator to scrunitise in detail the work of any learners who are having difficulty and to use the working provided there to identify individual misconceptions or problems. Checkpoints are accorded a high value because a virtual badge is awarded to learners passing the checkpoint quiz.

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Tension 3 – Learner mastery vs. working to a set timetable

In an ideal world, learners would be afforded an opportunity to take as long as they need to gain full mastery of a topic before proceeding to the next section. However, given that most learners (in our experience) are already 2 to 4 grades behind where they should be, time is a highly valuable commodity and in limited supply. This is especially true for learners who are far behind. The nature of mathematics dictates that they need to master the content in order to build knowledge, but they also need to keep moving – and without this impetus, many learners have a tendency to just drift.

In 2014, we allowed learners to wholly dictate the pace, but this created a wide and disparate spread across topic areas and made it very difficult for facilitators to track, monitor and effectively intervene. In 2015, we’re experimenting with a more hybrid approach that still allows learners to work largely at their own pace, but requires learners to cover a set number of lessons before a scheduled checkpoint quiz. Those learners who are struggling and need extra time attend additional sessions over and above their minimum of 2 sessions a week. It is still early, but the initial sense is that facilitators have a much better idea of how the class is progressing with this approach.

An ongoing challenge, particularly in relation to the Senior Phase (grades 7 – 9) intervention, is the identification of the core content and skills to focus on. This is complicated by the large backlogs learners arrive with and the limited time available in an afterschool environment. Identifying precisely which foundational elements to emphasise is not simple, and is one of the key questions we continue to work on in the development and improvement of the programme.

Tension 4: The need for remediation vs. current curriculum support

With a large number of learners initially ill-equipped to engage with grade appropriate curriculum content, there is a real need for remedial assistance. Many of the learners arrive with poor number sense, lack of experience in dealing with shapes and an orientation to mathematics as a set of arbitrary rules. There is thus an urgent need to provide learners with an experience of some of the fundamental basics of mathematics in a way that is connected and has meaning. Yet at same time, there is pressure from learners and parents to ‘cover’ content currently being addressed at school – a quandary we haven’t yet adequately resolved. While we have pushed the need to get the foundations in place and focused much of the computer-based work on developing a solid conceptual understanding, we have – by necessity – reverted to exam-specific drilling at points when learners have upcoming tests or exams. This kind of drilling has the advantage of offering some immediate rewards (normally a small uptick in the results for the test), and this improves confidence and buy-in to the programme where the really hard work of getting a solid grasp of the mathematics is done.

Tension 5: Individualised learning vs. creating communities of learning

One of the inherent advantages of a targeted use of technology is that the learner engages in a highly individualised learning experience. The computer will provide feedback based exclusively on what the individual learner inputs and the learner can respond appropriately in each case. However, there are also strong advantages to creating opportunities for extensive learner interactions. The value of peer-to-peer collaborative support is often vastly underestimated.

To this extent, we now look to start each class with a 5-minute game or challenge for learners to collaborate on. In addition to the homework learners receive based on where they are in the Moodle, we also assign the ‘5-a-day’ set of mathematics questions for learners to complete at home. Learners then share their experiences of the ‘5-a-day’ questions before they begin their computer-based sessions. Using feedback on learners’ performances from the Moodle, we are also able to identify groups of learners who need help with a particular area of content. Targeted small group sessions can then be structured for these learners where they can work with their peers and a tutor.

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Tension 6: Knowledge retention vs. gaming the system

Knowledge retention is a complex issue and hot topic in all forms of learning, since retention most likely only comes with a clear conceptual understanding of a topic. It is possible to master a single skill (e.g. adding fractions) in isolation without understanding the process at all. The gamification of our computer-based mathematics system has the potential to create a perverse incentive to simply get through the lessons by any means necessary, e.g. by figuring out the ‘trick’ to the right answer (even if the learner doesn’t understand why), or worse, simply copying from a fellow learner.

To prevent this and assess for learner retention, we have included regular mixed exercise sets to circle back on content previously covered and ensure that learners regularly have to deal with mathematics in situations where it isn’t immediately obvious which steps need to be applied. The checkpoints are also crucial as they are strictly supervised to prevent cheating and cover a range of skills. They thus allow us to pick up where learners are “gaming” their way through the online exercises.

Tension 7: Personal agency vs assumed control

The biggest learning and in some sense a bit of a contradiction is that learners only really start to fly once they take responsibility for their learning and see a relationship between personal effort and outcome. It is vitally important that learners want to understand the mathematics, take responsibility for asking when they don’t understand, and persevere with a difficult concept until it makes sense.

However, at the same time, we discovered in our initial explorations with computer-based learning that we need to play a very strong guiding (controlling) role in the initial stages. When learners had options to choose where to go on Khan Academy, some learners would spend most of their time working on easy exercises where they could have the gratification of getting everything right, but learning very little. Alternatively, learners would bounce off into topics completely disconnected from where they need to be. It thus requires a fine balancing act between temporarily taking more control (and needing to in order to get learners to find productive ways of working) and letting go enough that they can start to develop their personal agency and take responsibility for their own learning. Ultimately this is the clearest indicator of whether a learner is going to overcome their circumstances and succeed at mathematics.

Background information

OLICO Youth caters to 95 learners in grades 7-11 who attend computer-based mathematics classes for an hour after school, twice a week. Learners also attend life skills, study skills and literacy programmes on Saturday mornings. Participation in the programme is voluntary and learners are accepted on a ‘first-come first-served’ basis. However, strict attendance requirements are adhered to and learners who do not attend regularly are asked to leave the programme. OLICO only accepts a new intake of learners at the beginning of Grade 7 each year. Results of initial diagnostic tests each year suggest that the majority of learners entering the programme are between 2 and 4 years below grade level in mathematics.

The design of the programme is straightforward. Learners arrive at the centre after school; show completed homework to gain entry to the computer lab; follow the lesson-prompts on the computer; and collect new homework at the end of the session. The actual computer-based lessons are divided into 5 Ps.

  1. Pre-Quiz
  2. Presentation (video)
  3. Post-Quiz
  4. Practice mixed set
  5. Pause and review

 

[1] On a related point, we have been unable to replicate the example Salmon Khan uses in his TED talk of a struggling learner making dramatic gains to catch up with the rest of the class. In our experiences to date, the progression is much more gradual and requires sustained intervention since the skills that are lacking are rooted in core number proficiency gaps.

[2] There is a far greater variety of pre-existing options available to FET Phase learners already suited to the South African context. We have enrolled our Grade 10 and Grade 11 learners on Siyavula’s Intelligent Practice system (www.everythingmaths.co.za) and supplemented this with our own videos, lesson plans and checkpoint assessments.

[3] In this our experience echoes that of a New Zealand-based online programme, mathsbuddy.co.nz, and we have incorporated some of their suggested strategies into our work to deal with this.

Filed Under: News, OLICO Maths, Reports Tagged With: "south africa", diepsloot, e-learning, edtech, education, elearning, khan academy, mathematics, maths, online, technology

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