Evaluation of the Use of Concept Cartoon Activities in Teaching the Translation Concept from Students’ Perspectives

The present study aimed to examine students’ views about the evaluation of teaching via concept cartoon activities related to the translation concept within the scope of the sub-learning domain of 8th grade transformation geometry. The study was carried out using the case study method, which is based on the qualitative approach. The participants in the study were 40 8th grade students (25 female and 16 male) from two different classes of a state secondary school located in the Eastern Anatolia in Turkey. The application process in the study was conducted in one week, and the interviews held following the application process lasted three days. As the data collection tool, a semi-structured five-item interview form was used. The interviews were audio recorded, and they were transcribed and analyzed using the content analysis method. Following this, the students’ responses to each interview question were coded. Codings were obtained using an inductive analysis method. The research results revealed that the concept cartoon activities provided the students with a wide variety of benefits (instructive, entertaining, motivating, mental development and so on) and that the students had positive views about the use of cartoon activities in lessons. Considering the analysis results and the students’ views, the educational and methodological aspects of the study were discussed

On the Nature of Students\u27 Digital Mathematical Performances

In this study I investigate the nature of digital mathematical performances (DMPs) produced by elementary school students (Grades 4-6). A DMP is a multimodal text/narrative (e.g., a video) in which one uses the performance arts to communicate mathematical ideas. I analyze twenty-two DMPs available at the Math + Science Performance Festival in 2008. Assuming a sociocultural/postmodern perspective with emphasis on multimodality, my focus is on the role of the arts and technology in shaping students’ mathematical communication and thinking. Methodologically, I employ qualitative case studies, along with video analysis. I conduct a descriptive analysis of each DMP using Boorstin’s (1990) categories of what makes good films, focusing on surprises, sense-making, emotions, and visceral sensations. I also conduct a cross-case analysis using Boorstin’s categories and the mathematical processes and strands of the Ontario Curriculum. The multimodal nature of DMP is one of its most significant pedagogic attributes. Mathematics is traditionally communicated through print-based texts, but the production of DMPs is an alternative that engages students in conceiving multimodal narratives. The playfulness offers scenarios for students’ collaboration, creativity, and imagination. By making DMPs available online, students share their ideas in a public and social environment, beyond the classrooms. Most of the DMPs only explore Geometry and offer opportunities to experience some surprises, sense-making, emotions, and visceral sensations. The lack of focus on other strands (e.g., Algebra) may be seen as a reflection on what (and how) students are (or not) learning in their classes. The production of conceptual DMPs is a rare event, although I acknowledge that I analyzed only DMPs of the first year of the Festival, that is, students did not have examples or references to produce their DMPs. Some DMPs potentially explore conceptual mathematical surprises, but they appear to have gaps in terms of sense-making. The use of the arts and technologies does not guarantee the mathematical conceptuality of DMPs. This study contributes to mathematics education with an exploratory discussion about how mathematical ideas can be (a) communicated and represented as multimodal texts at the elementary school level and (b) seen through a performance arts lens. The study also points out directions about the pedagogic components for conceiving conceptual DMPs in terms of the performance arts and the components of the Ontario Curriculum

Procedural Aesthetics and the Emergence of NeuroArt

Although Neuroart is related to the concept of Neuroaesthetics (S. Zeki), which is based on a scientific approach to aesthetic perception of art, and to the concepts of Neuroplastic arts (G. Novakovic) and Neuromedia (J. Scott) endorsing collaboration between artists and neuroscientists, it is at the same time distinct from them. We are using the term literally to refer to those artworks that are based on neural / brain waves signals and the use of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) or more specifically, EEG headsets in the production and display of artworks. We focus on EEG-based sound art, visual arts, interactive installations, and performance arts, and we identify Neuroart as a novel, emerging form or sub-genre of new media art. However, we do not limit Neuroart to human-generated artworks only. Given that Neuroart applies to detection or inspection of neural electric signals, we claim that the electric nature of those signals also applies to processes inherent in machine processing or neural computing such as Google Deep Dream and other generic platforms that lay the foundations for computer and/or AI generated art forms including database art, software art, visualization art, sonification art as well as those artworks that result in material artifacts presented in traditional exhibition format. We additionally claim that regardless whether the artworks of Neuroart are driven by a human or machine, they can have the same aesthetic discursive value, but within a context of a newly defined discipline of aesthetics that is Procedural Aesthetics. The Procedural Aesthetics (or the aesthetics of signal), can be understood as the discursiveness of the very process of signals (intensities) emission before they enter the sphere of conscious cognition. It is a pre-receptive and pre-semantics phenomenon. It deals with the processes otherwise not available to human perceptive apparatus, trying to reveal them, unmask them, by offering them to interpretation as cultural artifacts. And in order to do this, it relies heavily on technology and technical equipment allowing us the access to these ‘invisible’ processes through visualization, sonification, textualization, mapping and other forms of interpretable representations displayed as artworks

Virtual Reality in Mathematics Education (VRiME):An exploration of the integration and design of virtual reality for mathematics education

This thesis explores the use of Virtual Reality (VR) in mathematics education. Four VR prototypes were designed and developed during the PhD project to teach equations, geometry, and vectors and facilitate collaboration.Paper A investigates asymmetric VR for classroom integration and collaborative learning and presents a new taxonomy of asymmetric interfaces. Paper B proposes how VR could assist students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in learning daily living skills involving basic mathematical concepts. Paper C investigates how VR could enhance social inclusion and mathematics learning for neurodiverse students. Paper D presents a VR prototype for teaching algebra and equation-solving strategies, noting positive student responses and the potential for knowledge transfer. Paper E investigates gesture-based interaction with dynamic geometry in VR for geometry education and presents a new taxonomy of learning environments. Finally, paper F explores the use of VR to visualise and contextualise mathematical concepts to teach software engineering students.The thesis concludes that VR offers promising avenues for transforming mathematics education. It aims to broaden our understanding of VR's educational potential, paving the way for more immersive learning experiences in mathematics education

Role of an artefact of Dynamic algebra in the conceptualisation of the algebraic equality

In this contribution, we explore the impact of Alnuset, an artefact of dynamic algebra, on the conceptualisation of algebraic equality. Many research works report about obstacles to conceptualise this notion due to interference of the previous arithmetic knowledge. New meanings need to be assigned to the equal sign and to letters used in algebraic expressions. Based on the hypothesis that Alnuset can be effectively used to mediate the conceptual development necessary to master the algebraic equality notion, two experiments have been designed and implemented in Italy and in France. They are reported in the second part of this pape