Prospective and current secondary mathematics teachers’ criteria for evaluating mathematical cognitive technologies

ABSTRACT

As technology becomes more ubiquitous in the mathematics classroom, teachers are being asked to incorporate it into their lessons more than ever before. The amount of resources available online is staggering and teachers need to be able to analyse and identify resources that would be most appropriate and effective with their students. This study examines the criteria prospective and current secondary mathematics teachers use and value most when evaluating mathematical cognitive technologies (MCTs). Results indicate all groups of participants developed criteria focused on how well an MCT represents the mathematics, student interaction and engagement with the MCT, and whether the MCT was user-friendly. However, none of their criteria focused on how well an MCT would reflect students’ solution strategies or illuminate their thinking. In addition, there were some differences between the criteria created by participants with and without teaching experience, specifically the types of supports available in an MCT. Implications for mathematics teacher educators are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Technology
• mathematical cognitive technology
• technology evaluation
• mathematics teacher education

SUBJECT CLASSIFICATION CODES:

• 97U70
• 97G40

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the University of Georgia College of Education Early Career Grant [FY2014]. Opinions, findings, and conclusion in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agency. Previous versions of the paper were presented at the 2015 Annual Conference of the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators in Orlando, FL and at the 2016 Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education Conference in Savannah, GA. We thank Jeremy Kilpatrick and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Popular MCTs include dynamic geometry environments (e.g. Geogebra), graphing utilities (e.g. Desmos), dynamic data analysis and statistical environments (e.g. Fathom), and many online applications designed for teaching and learning of particular mathematics concepts.