An Investigation Into Strategies for Teaching Skills in Primary School

This study was conducted with the purpose of investigating strategies for teaching numeracy skills in selected primary schools in Chipata district of Eastern Zambia. The research questions were as follows: (1) what teaching strategies are used to teach numeracy skills in primary schools? (2) In what environment is numeracy taught in primary schools? (3) What are teachers' perceptions regarding factors influencing numeracy skills among primary school pupils? This was a qualitative research that followed a case study design, in which 'purposeful sampling' was used to select a sample of three schools, from which a grade four teacher was selected and ten pupils were picked each time during FGD from each school. Data was collected using interviews with teachers, lesson observations, and focus group discussions with pupils, which was analyzed manually through constant comparative method following Seidel model. The results were that even though teachers made efforts to engage pupils through strategies like 'question and answer', 'group activities' just to mention a few, teachers predominantly used 'teacher-centered' strategies such as 'demonstrations' and 'exposition'.