Session Information
24 SES 03, Creative Learning Systems in Mathematics Education
Paper Session
Contribution
With the emergence of Integrated Learning Systems (ILS, also known as digital course-management systems), we see a development towards courses with interactive content, synchronous and a-synchronous communication and the possibility to be a student at remote locations. Pencil-and-paper tasks can be replaced through wireless work on a laptop. whereby students write in a text box or carry out a task with a digital tool, save their result and upload it to a dropbox. Also, tasks can be offered adaptively with hints at different levels and with immediate feedback (Kerres & De Witt, 2003; Ruthven, Hennessy & Deaney, 2005).
In 2007 teams of authors at our institute started to develop digital modules for newly introduced senior secondary school subjects in the science stream. Rationale for the research is (a) to present STEM subjects in an attractive way to students, and (b) to offer materials in a more flexible way than is possible with textbooks. In the paper I will further elaborate the study of the digital materials for an ILS for one of new subjects, Mathematics D.
Mathematics D is an elective Advanced Mathematics course and it caters only for a small target population (approx 3% of the cohort). In 2007, at its introduction into the curriculum, the commercial educational editors produced textbooks covering the topics of the subject. They added matching digital materials for ILS. These materials consist of additional content (applets and animations), digital tools for carrying out tasks (e.g. for constructing graphs), but they mostly contain static presentations of texts and figures, so-called pdf-s (answer sheets, guidelines, tasks, etc.). These materials are not interactive and they are primarily meant to be printed and used off-line.
While developing ILS-modules to substitute or supplement the textbooks, the question arose: how does a designer digitally enhance students’ mathematical insight? With this design question in mind, we started with an evaluation of the first modules.
The study draws on researchers of e-learning (Hilbert ea., 2008; Kerres & De Witt, 2003; Rogers & Finlayson, 2004; Ruthven, Hennessy & Deaney, 2005), defining e-learning as instruction using electronic media. Within modules created for an ILS, one can discern between content (theory, examples, historical backgrounds, etc.), communication (synchronous and asynchronous, between teacher and student, or amongst students) and tasks. Content can be presented as text, but also in diagrams, animations, video, or in screencasts (Udell, 2005): “a digital movie in which the setting is partly or wholly a computer screen and in which audio narration describes or explains the story on the on-screen action.”
Mathematical knowledge was described by Kilpatrick, Swafford and Findell (2001) descerning conceptual and procedural thinking. Additionally, Hiebert and Carpenter (1992) describe ‘understanding’ of mathematics as the way in which information is being structured in relations between facts, representations, procedures and ideas. Based on this framework, the operational research question is: to what extend do the content, communication and tasks of the first ILS-modules for Mathematics D emphasize conceptual or procedural mathematical thinking?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Hiebert, J., & Carpenter T. P. (1992). Learning and teaching with understanding. In D.A. Grouws (Ed.): Handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning (pp. 65–97). New York: MPC. Hilbert, T. S., Renkl, A., Schworm, S., Kessler, S., & Reiss, K. (2008). Learning to teach with worked-out examples: a computer-based learning environment for teachers. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 24, 316–332. Kerres, M. & De Witt, C. (2003). A Didactical Framework for the Design of Blended Learning Arrangements. Journal of Educational Media, 28(2–3), 101–113. Kilpatrick, J., Swafford, J. & Findell, B. (2001). Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Rogers, L. & Finlayson, H. (2004). Developing Successful Pedagogy with Information and Communications Technology: how are science teachers meeting the challenge? Technology, Pedagogy and Education, Vol. 13(3), 287–305. Ruthven, K., Hennessy, S., & Deaney, R. (2005). Incorporating Internet resources into classroom practice: pedagogical perspectives and strategies of secondary-school subject teachers. Computers & Education, 44, 1–34. Udell, J. (2004). Name that genre: screencast. Retrieved 17 Nov 2008 from: http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2004/11/17.html
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.