Abstract:
This study draws on theories relating to the local aspects of mathematical knowledge
and to mathematics pedagogy to explore how the teaching and learning activities
carried out in mathematics classrooms in Ghana deal with these aspects. It focussed
on the teaching of measurement of money at the primary school level. The primary
school level was considered in this study because it is during this period of time that
pupils develop the foundation for learning mathematics at higher grade levels. The
current Ghanaian primary school mathematics curriculum, three of the popular
primary school mathematics textbooks, and lessons from two experienced primary
school teachers constituted the main sources of data for the study. The data collected
were analysed qualitatively and presented as narrative description with some
illustrative examples. The study revealed amongst others that the approaches used by
teachers in the lessons observed reflected those suggested in mathematics curriculum
and the textbooks, and these approaches pay very little attention to the social and
cultural contexts of the pupils. By way of recommendation the authors provide an
alternative approach to the teaching of measurement of money in context, based on a
three-tier teaching strategy.
