The Learning and Teaching Support Material (LTSM) Policy Development and Innovation Directorate, in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and JET Education Services, has developed the Annual National Assessment (ANA) Data Usage Programme targeting Grades 3, 6 and 9 Mathematics Subject Advisors and Teachers with the provision of resource materials and training. The resource materials show how assessment data can be utilised in a manner which will inform improved teaching.

This is most critical as it has been seen from the ANA diagnostic reports which point to areas where individual teachers need specific support in terms of effective methods of facilitating learning. The resource materials have therefore been developed to build the capacity of teachers to analyse the ANA and other tests in order to identify typical errors made by learners and thereafter select appropriate teaching strategies to correct these errors and improve the teaching of Mathematics. They give precise and useful guidelines, with regards to accurate identification of the challenging content and conceptual areas shown through the errors as well as using these errors to create opportunities for learners to improve their mathematical abilities.

The programme comprises the provision of a guide for Subject Advisors and Teachers on the following: how to analyse errors in ANA and other test data and use these to improve teaching and learning; and presentation of various teaching strategies which teachers could use to adapt their teaching in order to address deficits evidenced in learner responses to items in the ANA. The title of the resource materials is “Using Learners’ Responses to inform the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics: Resource Materials Based on the Annual National Assessment (ANA)”. A team of 85 subject advisors, from all nine provinces, will undergo training on the programme. This team will go on to assist with the implementation and support of the training of teachers in their respective provinces. The training will take place at DBE, Sol Plaatje House, Pretoria from 25-27 May 2015.

To add more value to this programme, an External Evaluator, Khulisa Management Services has been appointed to assess the effectiveness of the programme in improving the knowledge and skills of Subject Advisors and teachers in conducting error analysis in Mathematics and to adapt teaching practices, while also highlighting areas that require improvement. The DBE plans to use the results of the evaluation to strengthen the programme before taking it to scale and replicating it for Literacy/Language. The programme’s key aim is to equip subject advisors and teachers with essential skills to analyse ANA and other tests data as well as use the results to adapt teaching in order to address deficits in learning.