Digital technology in mathematics education: Why it works (or doesn't)

The integration of digital technology confronts teachers, educators and researchers with many questions. What is the potential of ICT for learning and teaching, and which factors are decisive in making it work in the mathematics classroom? To investigate these questions, six cases from leading studies in the field are described, and decisive success factors are identified. This leads to the conclusion that crucial factors for the success of digital technology in mathematics education include the design of the digital tool and corresponding tasks exploiting the tool's pedagogical potential, the role of the teacher and the educational context

Webbing and orchestration. Two interrelated views on digital tools in mathematics education

The integration of digital tools in mathematics education is considered both promising and problematic. To deal with this issue, notions of webbing and instrumental orchestration are developed. However, the two seemed to be disconnected, and having different cultural and theoretical roots. In this article, we investigate the distinct and joint journeys of these two theoretical perspectives. Taking some key moments in recent history as points of de- parture, we conclude that the two perspectives share an importance attributed to digital tools, and that initial differences, such as different views on the role of digital tools and the role of the teacher, have become more nuances. The two approaches share future chal- lenges to the organization of teachers'collaborative work and their use of digital resources.Comment: Teaching Mathematics and its Applications (2014) to be complete

La tecnología digital en educación matemática: por qué funciona (o no)

The integration of digital technology confronts teachers, educators and researchers with many questions. What is the potential of ICT for learning and teaching, and which factors are decisive in making it work in the mathematics classroom? To investigate these questions, six cases from leading studies in the field are described, and decisive success factors are identified. This leads to the conclusion that crucial factors for the success of digital technology in mathematics education include the design of the digital tool and corresponding tasks exploiting the tool’s pedagogical potential, the role of the teacher and the educational context.La integración de la tecnología digital enfrenta a profesores, formado-res de profesores e investigadores a muchas preguntas. ¿Cuál es el po-tencial de las TIC en el aprendizaje y la enseñanza, y qué factores son determinantes al trabajar en clase de matemáticas? Para investigar es-tas cuestiones, se describen seis casos de estudio prominentes en el área, y se identifican los factores decisivos para el éxito. Esto lleva a la conclusión de que los factores cruciales para el éxito de la tecnología digital en la educación matemática incluyen el diseño de la herramienta digital y de las tareas apropiadas que exploren el potencial pedagógico de la herramienta, el papel del profesor y el contexto educativo

Didactical engineering in France; an insider’s and an outsider’s view on its foundations, its practice and its impact

International audienceThe notion of didactical engineering has influenced and characterized contemporary research in mathematics education in France to an important extent. In this paper, we address the following from an insider’s and an outsider’s perspective: (1) the way this notion is theoretically grounded, (2) the kinds of design research practices has it led to and is leading to, and (3) the way it relates to the design research paradigm. As a conclusion, we highlight similarities and differences between the two perspectives and recommend further discussions to the benefit of both didactical engineering from an insider’s and an outsider’s perspective

Aprender matemáticas en un entorno de álgebra computacional: los obstáculos constituyen oportuniades

Utilizar álgebra computacional no es tan fácil como puede parecer. Frecuentemente, los estudiantes encuentran obstáculos mientras trabajan en un entorno de álgebra computacional. En este artículo se distinguen los obstáculos globales y los locales, y se identifican los de ambas categorías. La teoría de la instrumentación proporciona un marco para interpretar el obstáculo como un desequilibrio entre los aspectos conceptual y técnico de un esquema de instrumentación. Se argumenta que explicitar los obstáculos y tratar de superarlos, conduce al desarrollo conceptual. En consecuencia, los obstáculos constituyen oportunidades de aprendizaje

Designing an instrument to measure the development of techno-mathematical literacies in an innovative mathematics course for future engineers in STEM education

Techno-mathematical Literacies (TmL), which are defined as a combination of mathematical, workplace and ICT knowledge, and communicative skills, are acknowledged as important learning goals in STEM education. Still, much remains unknown about ways to address them in teaching and to assess their development. To investigate this, we designed and implemented an innovative course in applied mathematics with a focus on Techno-mathematical Literacies for 1st-year engineering students, and we set out to measure the learning effect of the course. Because measuring TmL is an uncharted terrain, we designed tests that could serve as pre- or posttests. To prevent a test learning effect, we aimed to design two different but equally difficult tests A and B. These were assigned randomly to 68 chemistry students, as a pretest, with the other one serving as posttest after the course. A significant development in TmL was found in the B-pre group, but not in the A-pre group. Therefore, as a follow-up analysis we investigated whether the two tests were equally difficult and searched for possible explanations. We found that test B was indeed perceived as more difficult than test A, but also that students who were assigned B (pre) were previously higher achieving than A (pre), and a sound mastery level of basic skills that ground the higher-order TmL seemed necessary. Furthermore, as TmL are very heterogenous by nature, some of them are easier learned and measured than others. Based on the results, we propose ways of testing TmL, which should be validated in future research

Чи бувають сприйнятні ціни?

This paper describes a classroom experiment on the use of digital technology in initial algebra. Indonesian grade seven students of 12-13 year-old took part in a four session teaching sequence on beginning algebra enriched with digital technology, and in particular applets embedded in the Digital Mathematics Environment. The intervention aimed to improve students’ conceptual understanding and procedural skills in the domain of equations in one variable. The qualitative analysis of written and digital student work, backed up with video observations during the experiment, reveal that the use of digital technology affects student thinking and strategies dealing with equations and with related word problems. Practical and theoretical consequences of the results are discussed

Embodied instrumentation in a dynamic geometry environment: eleven-year-old students’ dragging schemes

Digital technologies for mathematics education are continuously developing. Still, much remains unknown about how students use these tools and how this affects learning. For example, tablets nowadays come with multi-touch options that allow for a more embodied approach to geometry education, compared to mouse interactions. However, little is known about how students use these opportunities to develop bodily-based conceptualizations of geometric concepts in a touch-based dynamic geometry environment (DGE). The aim of this study was to investigate students’ dragging schemes from an embodied instrumentation perspective and to identify the types of embodied-dragging schemes that the students use, while transforming one type of parallelogram into another. Fifty-seven 11-year-old students worked on a task on transforming a given parallelogram into a rectangle and next into a square, using a tablet-enabled DGE. Results showed that students used three types of embodied dragging schemes: (a) action-perception dragging guided by perceived prototypical images of shapes, (b) sequentially-coordinated dragging based on initial perception and then utilizing the affordances of the artefacts, and (c) adaptive dragging, effectively integrating action-perception loops and geometrical properties. In schemes of types (b) and (c), geometric properties of the constructed shapes emerged and guided students’ action-perception loops. As a conclusion, this description informs teachers, textbook authors, and designers of digital assessment on how to design student activities. From a theoretical perspective, the embodied instrumentation lens provided a fruitful approach to study student–tool interactions in geometry that does justice to the bodily foundations of mathematical cognition

Supporting braille readers in reading and comprehending mathematical expressions and equations

International audienceBraille readers create an overview of an expression by reading one braille character after another or listening to a voice saying the expression or equation aloud. The specific skills and knowledge that mathematics teachers need to assist this complicated process are often lacking. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of an intervention consisting of a course focused on braille display support in combination with Text-To-Speech synthesizer for mathematics teachers on the mathematical performances of braille readers. A quasi-experimental approach was taken to answer this question. Five teachers of an experimental group received the intervention whereas the teacher of the control group did not. Both the experimental group, consisting of 10 braille readers, and the control group, consisting of five braille readers, took a pre- and post-test. The results indicated that there was a very small positive effect of the intervention