Matome Matsepe Turns His Maths Struggles into Hope for Future Learners

Photo Credit: University of Pretoria via Facebook

Having found it difficult to apply maths procedures and formulae without understanding why they actually worked, Matome Matsepe was inspired to become an educator and create a new framework that helps learners engage deeply with mathematics.

Pretoria, South Africa (09 September 2026) – Mathematics, with its complex problems and equations, is not everyone’s cup of tea, and no two learners process it in exactly the same way. Having experienced challenges in the maths classroom as a youngster, Matome Edwin Matsepe knows this well.

At school, Matsepe found it difficult to learn mathematics by simply applying procedures and formulae without understanding why they worked. This made the subject challenging for him, and at the time, he was regarded as one of the learners who struggled with maths.

Those experiences sparked a deeper interest in the reasoning behind mathematical ideas and, over time, shaped his view that learning mathematics is not only about knowing what to do, but also understanding why it works.

Matsepe’s critical thinking on the subject ignited a passion for unpacking it, eventually leading him to become a maths teacher.

As a teacher, he began searching from one textbook to another for tasks that could help learners explain their thinking, make connections and understand the logic behind mathematical ideas.

“At its simplest, mathematical reasoning is about thinking through mathematics,” Matsepe said.

“It involves noticing relationships, making connections, identifying patterns, using intuition, making conjectures, giving reasons and deciding whether an argument makes sense.”

Photo Credit: University of Pretoria via Facebook

Today a proud Mathematics Education lecturer, he recently graduated with a PhD in Mathematics Education at the University of Pretoria’s Spring Graduation ceremonies. As part of his research, Matsepe examined 1,972 tasks across nine South African mathematics textbooks, finding a need for more opportunities for learners to explore, reason and think creatively.

He proposes a framework to help educators design maths tasks that encourage learners to explain, justify and connect mathematical ideas, rather than simply apply established procedures, reproduce known reasoning or work with geometric theorems that have already been established, even when they do not fully understand them.

“The aim is not to eliminate routine mathematical practice,” Matsepe said.

“Routine tasks have their place. The aim is to ensure that they are complemented by tasks that require learners to think, connect ideas, explain, justify and reason.”

Matsepe’s research carries important value and potential for how school materials are made, approved and used across South Africa. He suggests his guidelines could help the Department of Basic Education evaluate and approve textbooks before they reach classrooms, ensuring that the practice activities or mathematical tasks inside them help learners think more deeply.

This is especially relevant in South Africa, where many schools, particularly under-resourced and rural classrooms, rely almost entirely on textbooks for daily learning. And since so many learners depend on these books, having high-quality, thought-provoking questions is not just nice to have; it is a matter of giving every child a fair opportunity to succeed.

“If a textbook is one of the main resources available to a learner, it should provide opportunities not only to practise procedures but also to think deeply about mathematics,” Matsepe emphasised.

Matsepe’s research findings have also been presented in Australia and France, as he continues working to provide the kind of learning approach he longed for while growing up and to empower young people to reason with mathematics differently.