MSOR Connections Vol 9 No 2 May – July 2009

Erhan Selcuk Haciomeroglu, Lingguo Bu, Robert C. Schoen and Markus Hohenwarter

Learning to Develop Mathematics Lessons with GeoGebra

Erhan Selcuk Haciomeroglu

Department of Teaching and Learning Principles
University of Central Florida
[email protected]

Abstract
This paper describes how prospective secondary mathematics teachers’ Technological Pedagogical
Content Knowledge (TPCK) and perspectives about teaching and learning mathematics were enriched
as they worked individually and in small groups to develop and present lessons with GeoGebra. We also
note how Geogebra can be used as a vehicle for building links between a research-focussed university
Lingguo Bu and secondary school teachers.
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
[email protected] Introduction
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) [3] calls for change in
teacher education programs. The ISTE’s National Educational Technology Standards for
Teachers (NETS∙T) [5] emphasize the increased role that technology plays in improving
the teaching and learning and suggests standards and performance indicators for
teachers in five areas to promote appropriate uses of technologies in education.
Despite current reform efforts, our education system fails to address the specific
Robert C. Schoen needs of today’s students, who are “digital natives”, growing up with new technologies
Florida Center for Research in Science, [6]. One problem facing education today may be that the educators, who, as “digital
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
immigrants”, speak an outdated language to their digitally minded students [6].
Learning Systems Institute
Florida State University Many prospective teachers have insufficient knowledge about teaching and learning
[email protected] mathematics with technology, and research has shown that they often rely on their
learning experiences as a student to make instructional decisions (e.g., [1]). Therefore,
prospective teachers must be prepared for the changing classroom environments with
new interactive technologies so that they become critical thinkers and consumers
of the new pedagogical resources and develop thought-revealing learning activities
(e.g., [4]) as they teach mathematics to their future students. We think that methods
courses for prospective teachers are critical in helping them develop Technological
Markus Hohenwarter Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK). We as educators may not be and do not have
Florida Center for Research in Science, to be skilled in creating computer games for mathematics, but we must incorporate
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics powerful dynamic technologies in our teacher education courses to create rich
Learning Systems Institute environments in which prospective teachers explore ways of teaching mathematics
Florida State University with appropriate technologies.
[email protected]
The use of technology within the mathematics classroom has become widely
acknowledged in the research literature. Recently, innovative and dynamic
mathematics software environments – for example, GeoGebra [2] – have made
possible interactions between students and computers, which have the potential to
improve mathematics curriculum and classroom dynamics. As a result, preparation of
prospective mathematics teachers for incorporating technology in mathematics has

24
 MSOR Connections Vol 9 No 2 May – July 2009

changed over the past few decades and will require further incorporating multiple representations of mathematical
study and improvement. concepts that are linked dynamically. Without having to
Difficulty with incorporating technology–based teaching spend a significant amount of classroom time on drawing
and learning in methods courses is further complicated by figures, objects, or functions, students can explore
content and pedagogical issues associated with technology. mathematical concepts and dynamically connect algebraic,
For instance, when students are exposed to multiple graphic, and numeric representations of these concepts.
representations, they often rely on technology to translate
Methods
among representations as they learn mathematics, which
may compromise the development of their mathematical During the summer and fall 2008 semesters at a major
understanding. Moreover, there is an increasing importance research university in the south eastern United States, 44
of dynamic linking of multiple representations in facilitating prospective secondary mathematics teachers enrolled
students’ visualization because students can explore, in two methods courses participated in this study. At the
solve, and communicate mathematical concepts in various beginning of each semester, we provided instructions about
ways, such as using dynamic multiple representations GeoGebra [2]; that is, the prospective teachers first explored
and mathematical modelling. Simply showing pictures or the GeoGebra website including GeoGebraWiki where
figures is not sufficient to encourage students to visualize or worksheets, lessons, and other teaching materials are shared
use various representations. by educators from all over the world. After becoming familiar
with the menus and toolbars of the software, they learned
This leads to the question of how we as teacher educators
how to create basic mathematical objects and figures such as
provide rich learning experiences to help prospective teachers
points, drawing line segments, graphs, or polygons. Then, the
develop TPCK and enable them to design appropriate
prospective teachers were asked to illustrate a mathematical
activities and describe pedagogical strategies for the effective
concept or problem with GeoGebra in any area of secondary
teaching and learning of mathematics with technology. We
mathematics content. As they designed GeoGebra
believe that collaborative and group lesson planning and
worksheets and developed lessons, they were encouraged
implementation should be embedded into teacher education
to work collaboratively with their classmates. Throughout
programs to help prospective teachers develop TPCK as a
the semester, they were asked to describe how they would
foundation in the teaching and learning of mathematics
teach their lesson, (e.g., include teacher actions and possible
and appropriate pedagogical strategies for mathematics
questions to be asked, and student actions and possible
content. In this study, prospective teachers developed lessons
responses), consider how their future students would
using GeoGebra [2] to teach various areas of secondary
explore the problem or concept illustrated with GeoGebra,
mathematics. The prospective secondary mathematics
and explain what and how they would expect their
teachers were asked to consider teacher actions and possible
future students would learn through their activities. Each
questions to be asked, and student actions, misconceptions,
prospective teacher made a thirty minute presentation of his
questions, and possible responses as their future students
or her technology supported lesson, and their presentations
explored mathematical concepts or problems.
were critiqued by the class. At the end of each semester, the
GeoGebra prospective teachers wrote open–ended reflections on their
experience of developing lesson plans with GeoGebra.
GeoGebra [2] is an open source mathematics software
program that accepts geometric, algebraic, and calculus Results
commands and links multiple representations (Fig 1).
GeoGebra users can create dynamic worksheets that can In our class discussions, we discussed the importance of
be used with any Internet browser supporting Java on any creating dynamic worksheets by emphasizing that just
operating system. The software was developed to enable showing pictures, figures, or diagrams is not sufficient
multiple representations and visualization of mathematical to facilitate students’ learning or their use of various
concepts. Thus, GeoGebra lends itself to create activities representations and visualization. As a result, once the
prospective teachers became familiar with the software
to be able to draw mathematical objects and figures, they
collaborated with their classmates to convert GeoGebra [2]
worksheets with static drawings into dynamic constructions.
As an illustrative example, screen shots of worksheets
are presented. For instance, to draw a graph of a linear or
quadratic function and its inverse simultaneously (Fig 2),
not only did they have to determine what tools to use,
but they also they explored their own understanding
of inverse functions graphically and algebraically (e.g.,
symmetry with respect to the line y = x, restricting domains
of quadratic functions). Designing a real life activity about
Fig 1 – GeoGebra
Learning to Develop Mathematics Lessons with GeoGebra 25
– Erhan Selcuk Haciomeroglu, Lingguo Bu, Robert C. Schoen and Markus Hohenwarter
MSOR Connections Vol 9 No 2 May – July 2009

ranges of cellular phones and forwarding phone signals

to switching stations to explore graphs and equations of
circles in standard and non–standard forms was a rich and
challenging learning task for prospective teachers (Fig
3). To situate learning of slopes of linear functions in real
life context (e.g., distance–time graph of a car travelling
at a constant speed, slowing down, or speeding up), they
had to synthesize their content knowledge (e.g., slope,
intercepts, and equation of a line), technology knowledge, Fig 5 – Triangular
and their understandings of real life applications of the prism
concept (e.g., interpreting distance–time graphs). Creating
dynamic worksheets illustrating an isosceles trapezoid (Fig
Conclusions
4) and a triangular prism (Fig 5) enabled them visualize how Our work with prospective teachers has shown that
changing dimensions (i.e., base, leg, or height) affected developing and presenting lessons with GeoGebra [2]
the interior angles of the isosceles trapezoid and the positively influenced prospective teachers’ views about
volume of the triangular prism. As they created dynamic teaching and learning of mathematics with technology and
GeoGebra worksheets for their lessons, we observed that led to effective development of lessons in various content
they synthesized their content knowledge, pedagogical areas of secondary mathematics. In describing how their
knowledge, and technology knowledge. In their reflections, future students would learn in their lessons, they used the
almost all prospective teachers expressed positive views language, conventions, and representations of mathematics,
about teaching and learning mathematics with GeoGebra. and dynamic worksheets to attend to student learning
needs in a technology-rich classroom. We inferred that they
developed preliminary TPCK as a result of their participation
in the activities of the study. We must note that drawing
mathematical objects and figures is not enough, and that
creating dynamic activities is essential to the development
of their TPCK. This seems to be consistent with the general
notion of mathematical understanding as one’s growing
competence to navigate through various representations
of mathematics concepts illustrated dynamically. We can
deepen prospective teachers’ knowledge of teaching and
learning mathematics with technology by creating a rich and
collaborative learning environment and challenging them
with new problems, new pedagogies, and new solutions
associated with the use of technology.
Fig 2 – Inverse
functions References
1. Bu, L, Dickey, L., Kim, H., Jakubowski, E., and Spector,
J. M. (2008) Model-facilitated learning: Preservice
mathematics teachers’ initial experience with the next-
generation graphing calculators. The 2008 International
Convention of the Association for Educational
Communications and Technology. Orlando, FL: AECT.
2. GeoGebra. Available via: http://www.geogebra.org
[Accessed 27 February 2009].
3. International Society for Technology in Education
(ISTE). Available via: http://www.iste.org
[Accessed 27 February 2009].
Fig 3 – Graphs of 4. Kelly, A. E., Lesh, R. A., and Baek, J. Y. (2008) Handbook
circles of Innovative Design Research in Science, Technology,
Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) Education. New York:
Taylor & Francis.
5. National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers
(NETS∙T) (2008). Available via:
http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/
ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf
[Accessed 27 February 2009].
Fig 4 – Isosceles 6. Prensky, M. (2001) Digital natives, digital immigrants.
trapezoid On the Horizon, Vol. 9 (No. 5): 1-6.
26 Learning to Develop Mathematics Lessons with GeoGebra
– Erhan Selcuk Haciomeroglu, Lingguo Bu, Robert C. Schoen and Markus Hohenwarter