Mathematics and ICT: a framework for conceptualising secondary school mathematics teachers’ classroom practices

Abstract

Using a case study research strategy of data collection, the empirical component of the study presented in this paper is aimed at exploring the interplay between content knowledge and pedagogy when information and communication technologies (ICT) are used by a number of secondary school mathematics teachers. An orienting framework advanced as a result of critically reviewing research on teachers’ professional knowledge base for teaching structured what was noticed, paid attention to and taken as important in teachers’ accounts of their practices with ICT. Cross‐case analysis of the data collected by means of interviews and lesson observations followed the writing of each teacher’s profile, enabling comparison of the seven teachers’ practices with ICT. The analysis of the data yielded a number of salient factors, of both contextual and personal nature, which were identified as key to the integration of ICT into mathematics teaching. The findings of this study add new dimensions to understanding teachers’ use of ICT by treating the teaching of mathematics and ICT use as interwoven aspects of a teacher’s practice. A framework which conceptualises teachers’ learning about ICT and teachers’ incorporation of ICT in their teaching of mathematics is advanced with the aim of contributing to a better understanding of the pedagogy of teaching mathematics with ICT.

Notes

1. Throughout this paper, the corresponding terminology specific to each study reviewed will be used. In the context of mathematics ICT and the new technology will refer to graphical calculators and computers together with applications such as spreadsheets, graphics packages, algebra and geometry systems.

2. Ofsted is the UK Office for Standards in Education and provides data based on inspections of all UK primary and secondary schools.

3. In a voluntary aided school, the school is funded partly by the local education authority, partly by the governing body and partly by a voluntary organisation. The pupils have to follow the National Curriculum.

A selective school is a school which admits students on the basis of some sort of selection criteria (e.g. academic, faith, special educational needs).

Grammar schools are state secondary schools, which select their pupils by means of an examination taken by children at age 11, known as the ‘11 plus’.