Discovery learning is a method of inquiry-based instruction, in discovery learning, learners have opportunities to discover facts and relationships for themselves. In Vietnam, this method was approached from many decades ago. The paper will present the results of the investigating mathematics teachers’ opinions on the use of discovery learning in teaching geometry in junior schools of Vietnam in the case of instructing topic “trapezoid”.  Article visualizations

Phu Loc, Nguyen

Quoc Viet, Nguyen

English

European Journals of Education Studies

  European Journal of Education Studies ISSN: 2501 - 1111 ISSN-L: 2501 - 1111 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu  Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved.                                                                                                                  © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group                                                                                                                         143 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.495003 Volume 3 │Issue 5 │2017  JUNIOR SCHOOL TEACHERS’ OPINIONS ON TEACHING TOPIC ‚TRAPEZOID‛ BY DISCOVERY LEARNING:   THE INVESTIGATION IN DONG THAP PROVINCE, VIETNAM  Nguyen Phu Loc1,  Nguyen Quoc Viet2 1School of Education,  Can Tho University, Vietnam 2Master student in Mathematics Education,  Dong Thap University, Vietnam  Abstract: Discovery learning is a method of inquiry-based instruction, in discovery learning, learners have opportunities to discover facts and relationships for themselves. In Vietnam, this method was approached from many decades ago. The paper will present the results of the investigating mathematics teachers’ opinions on the use of discovery learning in teaching geometry in junior schools of Vietnam in the case of instructing topic “trapezoid”.  Keywords: discovery learning, teaching geometry, trapezoid, mathematics education  1. Background  1.1 Conception on discovery learning Discovery learning, according to Bruner (1961), is an “inquiry-based, constructivist learning that takes place in problem-solving situations where the learner draws on his or her own past experience and existing knowledge to discover facts and relationships and new truths to be learned” As a result, students may be more likely to remember concepts and knowledge discovered on their own (Bruner, 2009)  1.2 Topic ‚Trapezoid‛ in Mathematics 8 – Vietnam The content of topic “Trapezoid” in the textbook “To{n 8” (Mathematics 8) of Vietnam consists of the following contents (see Table 1).  Nguyen Phu Loc, Nguyen Quoc Viet JUNIOR SCHOOL TEACHERS’ OPINIONS ON TEACHING TOPIC “TRAPEZOID” BY DISCOVERY LEARNING:   THE INVESTIGATION IN DONG THAP PROVINCE, VIETNAM European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 5 │ 2017                                                                                  144 Table 1: Contents of the topic “Trapezoid” in Mathematics 8 - Vietnam Concepts Theorems Trapezoid A trapezoid is a quadrilateral with two sides parallel Theorem 1: In an isosceles trapezoid, two legs are equal. Right trapezoid A right trapezoid is a trapezoid with one right angle Theorem 2: Two diagonals of an isosceles trapezoid are equal. Isosceles trapezoid An isosceles trapezoid is a trapezoid in which two angles adjacent to a base are equal Theorem 3: Trapezoid with two diagonals equal is isosceles.  Theorem 4: The line through the midpoint of one leg of a trapezoid and parallel to its bases will pass through the midpoint of the second leg.  Theorem 5: The mid-segment of a trapezoid is parallel to the two bases and equals half the sum of the bases.  The mathematics contents of the topic “trapezoid” as presented in Table 1 allow us to assert that it is not difficult for the teacher to guide his students to learn by discovery. The problem is that in practice of teaching, do teachers have used this method? How do they think about discovery learning? They are main reasons for our investigation.  1.3 The purpose of investigating teachers ‘opinions 1. To know what teachers’ perceptions on discovery learning are. 2. To find out whether teachers (and students) in secondary schools are interested in discovery learning. 3. To find out what difficulties of teachers have met in using  discovery learning to teach topic “Trapezoid”.  2. Methodology   Questionnaire: In order to investigate mathematics teachers’ opinions, we designed questionnaire of 8 closed questions with multi-choices.  Subjects: 40 junior school teachers of mathematics who are teaching in Junior schools of Chau Thanh district, Dong Thap province, Vietnam.  Time: from 8-2016 to 11-2016  3. Results and discussion  3.1. The questions to investigate and their answers Nguyen Phu Loc, Nguyen Quoc Viet JUNIOR SCHOOL TEACHERS’ OPINIONS ON TEACHING TOPIC “TRAPEZOID” BY DISCOVERY LEARNING:   THE INVESTIGATION IN DONG THAP PROVINCE, VIETNAM European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 5 │ 2017                                                                                  145 Question 1: During teaching, do you ever have use discovery learning to help your students explore the geometric contents? (The answers in Table 2).  Table 2: Teachers’ the levels of using discovery learning to teach Geometry Very  Frequently Frequently Occasionally Rarely Very  Rarely 2 11 20 5 2 (5%) (27.5%) (50%) (12.5%) (5%)  Question 2: When teaching the topic of trapezoid, which teaching method do you have used to transfer knowledge to students? (The answers in Table 3 and Figure 1).  Table 3: Teachers’ the levels of using discovery learning to teach trapezoid in  comparison with the others Teaching method Level of application  Very Frequently Frequently Occasionally  Rarely Very Rarely Posing and solving problem 0 (0%) 12 (30%) 23 (57.5%) 5 (12.5%) 0 (0%) Lecturing 4 (10%) 15 (37.5%) 12 (30%) 9 (22.5%) 0 (0%) Discovery learning 9 (22.5%) 17 (42.5%) 8 (20%) 6 (15%) 0 (0%) Modelling 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 40 (100%) Co-operative  learning 7 (17.5%) 16 (40%) 13 (32.5%) 4 (10%) 0 (0%)    Figure 1: Teachers’ the levels of using discovery learning to teach trapezoid in  comparison with the others Posing and solvingProblemLecturingDiscovery LearningModellingCooperational learningNguyen Phu Loc, Nguyen Quoc Viet JUNIOR SCHOOL TEACHERS’ OPINIONS ON TEACHING TOPIC “TRAPEZOID” BY DISCOVERY LEARNING:   THE INVESTIGATION IN DONG THAP PROVINCE, VIETNAM European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 5 │ 2017                                                                                  146 Question 3: In your opinion, is discovery learning suitable for teaching the topic of trapezoid? (The answers in Table 4).  Table 4: The appropriate levels of discovery learning in teaching trapezoid Absolutely appropriate Appropriate  Neutral Inappropriate Absolutely  inappropriate 6 19 13 2 0 (15%) (47.5%) (32.5%) (5%) (0%)  Question 4:  When applying discovery learning to your instruction, do you have used visual tools (learning cards, projectors, math software) to support in the lesson? (The answers in Table 5).  Table 5: The use visual tools to support discovery learning Very Frequently Frequently Occasionally Rarely Very  Rarely 3 17 11 8 1 (7.5%) (42.5%) (27.5%) (20%) (2.5%)  Question 5: When using discovery learning, what difficulties did you meet? (The answers in Table 6 and Figure 2).  Table 6: Teachers’ difficulties when using discovery learning Items The number of teachers (N = 40) Lacking teaching equipments 7 17.5 % Taking much time for preparation 32 80% Being less effective than traditional teaching methods 11 27.5% IT skills are limited 9 22.5% Other difficulties 0 0%   Figure 2: Teachers’ difficulties when using discovery learning Difficulties of discovery learning  Lacking teaching equipmentsTaking much time forpreparationBeing less effective thantraditional teaching methodsIT skills being limitedOther difficultiesNguyen Phu Loc, Nguyen Quoc Viet JUNIOR SCHOOL TEACHERS’ OPINIONS ON TEACHING TOPIC “TRAPEZOID” BY DISCOVERY LEARNING:   THE INVESTIGATION IN DONG THAP PROVINCE, VIETNAM European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 5 │ 2017                                                                                  147 Question 6: In your opinion, does discovery learning make students interesting in learning? (The answers in Table 7).  Table 7: The interesting level of students towards learning by discovery Very interesting Interesting Normal Not interesting Absolutely not interesting 5 16 11 8 0 (12.5%) (40%) (27.5%) (20%) (0%)  Question 7: According to your opinion, does learning by discovery help students to be easy to remember mathematical knowledge? (The answers in Table 8 and Figure 3).  Table 8: Students’ levels to remember mathematics when learning by discovery Very easy to remember Easy to remember Normal Difficult to remember Very difficult to remember 5 23 8 4 0 (12.5%) (57.5%) (20%) (10%) (0%)   Figure 3: Students’ levels to remember mathematics when learning by discovery  Question 8: During teaching mathematics by discovery, are you associated with the other teaching methods? (The answers in Table 9).  Table 9: Associating discovery learning with other teaching methods Very Frequently Frequently Occasionally Rarely Very Rarely 2 19 11 8 0 (5%) (47.5%) (27.5%) (20%) (0%)   Levels of remembering knowledge by discovering very easy to remembereasy to remembernormaldifficult to rememberVery difficult to rememberNguyen Phu Loc, Nguyen Quoc Viet JUNIOR SCHOOL TEACHERS’ OPINIONS ON TEACHING TOPIC “TRAPEZOID” BY DISCOVERY LEARNING:   THE INVESTIGATION IN DONG THAP PROVINCE, VIETNAM European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 5 │ 2017                                                                                  148 4.2. Discussion Through Table 2, 50% teachers occasionally used discovery learning to teach geometry content. However, for topic of trapezoid, there are 47.5% teachers applied this method for teaching frequently. Figure 1 shows us that learning by discovering was used by the most teachers; this results coincide with the results in Table 3 in which many teachers (47.5%) stated that discover learning is an appropriate for teaching topic of trapezoid.   Table 7 and Table 8 indicated that learning by discovering is an effective teaching method because it makes students interesting and easy to remember mathematical knowledge (see Figure 3). In addition to these advantages, we should note that it take much time for preparing the lesson with discovery learning (see Table 6  and Figure 2), and should associate the other teaching methods to increase the quality of instruction (see Table 9).  5. Conclusion  Discovery learning is an active teaching method. It provides learners with opportunities to carry out discovering actions such as: analyzing, making hypothesis, generalizing,.. However, in order to use this method in an effective way, the teacher takes much time to prepare the lesson and know how to guide his students to re-invent knowledge if not, the teaching process will not produce results as expected.   References  1. Bruner, J. S. (1961). The act of discovery. Harvard educational review. 2. Bruner, J. S. (2009). The process of education. Harvard University Press. 3. Chinh, P.Đ, Than, T. et al (2015), Toán 8 (Mathematics 8), Hanoi: Vietnam Education Publication House (in Vietnamese)          Received date March 12, 2017 Accepted date April 2, 2017 Publication date April 5, 2017 Nguyen Phu Loc, Nguyen Quoc Viet JUNIOR SCHOOL TEACHERS’ OPINIONS ON TEACHING TOPIC “TRAPEZOID” BY DISCOVERY LEARNING:   THE INVESTIGATION IN DONG THAP PROVINCE, VIETNAM European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 5 │ 2017                                                                                  149                                      Creative Commons licensing terms Author(s) will retain the copyright of their published articles agreeing that a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) terms will be applied to their work. 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JUNIOR SCHOOL TEACHERS’ OPINIONS ON TEACHING TOPIC “TRAPEZOID” BY DISCOVERY LEARNING:   THE INVESTIGATION IN DONG THAP PROVINCE, VIETNAM

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JUNIOR SCHOOL TEACHERS’ OPINIONS ON TEACHING TOPIC “TRAPEZOID” BY DISCOVERY LEARNING: THE INVESTIGATION IN DONG THAP PROVINCE, VIETNAM

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