The effect of graphic calculators on Negev Arab pupils’ learning of the concept of families of functions

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of graphic calculators on ninth-grade Arab pupils in the Negev district of Israel who are learning the concept ‘families of functions’. It compares two groups of pupils, one of which studied the topic ‘families of functions’ using graphic calculators whilst the second group studied the same topic in the usual way. For the purpose of this research, a questionnaire based on the material studied in class was devised. While the principal results did not reveal any significant difference between the two groups in drawing the functions, they did show that graphic calculators helped those pupils who used them to execute tasks of mathematical inference, such as finding the characteristic properties of families of functions, finding examples of functions that exhibit given properties, and determining the algebraic pattern of families of functions that exhibit given properties.

Keywords:

• graphic calculators
• families of functions
• Arab sector