[Maths-Education] Re: Maths-Education Digest, Vol 77, Issue 12

[Tandi Clausen-May]

Sue Forsythe's study, as limited as she says it is, at least addresses Sarah
Maugham's initial request for 'evidence about whether ICT has a positive
impact on attainment in mathematics'.  But action research carried out by
teachers in their own classroom doesn't carry the kudos (or the funding) of
academic research.  
Yours, Tandi
Tandi Clausen-May
Independent Consultant
Mathematics curriculum and assessment
Special education
Tel: 01628 776 204
-----Original Message-----
From: maths-education-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:maths-education-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of
Forsythe, Susan K.
Sent: 15 March 2011 12:45
To: 'Mathematics Education discussion forum'
Subject: [Maths-Education] Re: Maths-Education Digest, Vol 77, Issue 12

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For my Masters dissertation, which I completed in 2006, I enquired into
whether teaching and learning of geometrical concepts through the medium of
Dynamic Geometry Software (DGS) could be shown to be effective. I was still
a classroom teacher at this point and, for my study, I taught two parallel
classes in year 7, two of the geometry topics from the year 7 programme of
study (from the English National Framework for Teaching Mathematics). The
target group worked with DGS and the control group worked using pencil and
paper methods. Both classes had the same number of lessons for the two
topics and the control group did a lot of practical activities so that it
would not be all bookwork and I, as the teacher, would be as enthusiastic
about their lessons as with the computer based lessons.
The study used quantitative methods to analyse the effectiveness of the two
teaching methods (by testing the children). This had to be done using pencil
and paper tests because the control class had not learnt to use the
software. By the end of the study there was a statistically significant
difference between the test results of the two classes. The target class,
who had learnt through the medium of the computer, achieved better results
in the tests. The results were even more pronounced for the target boys.
I appreciate that this is only a study carried out for a Masters degree and
only for a small sample size of two school classes. However, if anyone is
interested then I would be happy to email them my dissertation. I also wrote
an article based on my results in Mathematics Teaching, no. 202.


Sue Forsythe
Lecturer in Mathematics Education
School of Education
University of Leicester