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Learners in general struggle when working with word problems. South African learners in particular have an added barrier owing to the many official languages that have been legislated. The South African Department of Basic Education, through its curriculum statements, envisages that problem solving will play a fundamental part in mathematics teaching and learning. Whilst this has been embraced by teachers of mathematics, learners still experience difficulties when solving chosen word problems. This empirical, qualitative study explored 28 Grade 9 learners' use of visualisation when solving word problems. After all the due ethical clearance protocols were observed, one class of learners completed a task-based exercise and five learners were interviewed. The results showed that when learners drew a diagram that represented the problem, they were more likely to solve it. Those learners who drew no diagram, or drew an incorrect one, failed to arrive at a suitable solution. An important finding is that the visualisation technique is a powerful tool when working with the solving of problems in mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology as a school subject has extensive entrepreneurship potential, especially when combined with the practical production aspects that form part of the intended curriculum. The South African Senior Phase Technology curriculum is silent on the topic of entrepreneurship and as a result, this potential is not reaching learners in a country with high levels of youth unemployment. This paper endeavours to address recommendations made in previous research, that entrepreneurship education should be developed as part of the South African Senior Phase Technology curriculum. Utilising the design process—described in the curriculum as the backbone for Technology methodology—as a point of departure, the current study aimed to develop proposals for the unpacking and scaffolding of entrepreneurship education in Technology, without deviating too far from the structure and content of the existing intended curriculum. Systematic qualitative document analysis and a consumer-based approach were used to align proposed entrepreneurship education with the curriculum definition and the original intentions of Technology education, which were to contribute to reducing unemployment in South Africa. The proposed structure and content for including entrepreneurship education in Senior Phase Technology will be presented to the Department of Basic Education for their consideration in subsequent curriculum modifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]