AFZAL AHMED, ALISON CLARK-JEAVONS and ADRIAN OLDKNOW

HOW CAN TEACHING AIDS IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF

MATHEMATICS EDUCATION1

RESUME. L’interaction et les liens entre objets (structurés ou peu structurés), images,
langage et symboles qui portent vers le raisonnement mathématique et la formulation des
propositions mathématiques d’une grande généralité méritent d’être étudiés davantage. Je
crois que la distinction subtile entre la manière de laquelle les idées mathématiques sont
construites à partir des objets, et les caractéristiques particulières des objets n’est pas toujours
claire pour les professeurs. Pendant la séance plénière, avec l’aide des collègues et l’emploi
des exemples et des situations pratiques, je voudrais explorer la distinction entre les idées
mathématiques qui sont discutées dans les salles de classe et les objets qui servent à aider
les abstractions. L’usage de la technologie interactive pour la création des significations
mathématiques sera une partie importante des contributions de mes collègues.

ABSTRACT. The interplay among and connections between objects (structured or unstruc-
tured), images, language and symbols that lead to mathematical reasoning and the stating
of mathematical propositions of very wide generality is well worth closer study. I believe
that the subtle distinction between the way mathematical ideas are constructed from objects
and the particular characteristics of the objects is often not clear in many teachers’ minds.
In the plenary, with the help of colleagues, using practical examples and situations, I would
like to explore the distinction between the mathematical ideas that are being discussed in
classrooms and the objects that are used in helping with abstractions. The use of interactive
technology in the creation of mathematical meanings will form an important part of my
colleagues’ contributions.

KEY WORDS: interactive technology, mathematical abstractions, teaching aids

The principles here advocated are receiving daily verification in many schools,
where the practical and theoretical aspects of mathematics are co-ordinated and
developed: where simple descriptive geometry aids and is aided by clay-modelling
and drawing: where theoretical geometry and practical geometrical drawing and
mensuration illustrate and assist each other: where theoretical and experimental
mechanics are associated with each other and with pure mathematics: where, in
fine, all the branches of elementary mathematics, pure and applied, theoretical
and experimental, are commingled at appropriate times, so that the mind sees and
uses its mathematical conceptions and processes as a beautiful, well-ordered, and
powerful whole, instead of a thing of shreds and patches.
Benchara Branford (1908), A Study of Mathematical Education

1
This article is based on a plenary lecture delivered at the 55th International Conference
of the ‘Commission Internationale pour l’Étude et l’Amélioration de l’Enseignement des
Mathématiques’(CIEAEM), Plock, Poland, 22–28 July, 2003.

Educational Studies in Mathematics 56: 313–328, 2004.

C 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
314 AFZAL AHMED ET AL.

It has been a real pleasure for me to have worked on presenting this ple-
nary for which I (Afzal) would like to thank the organisers, our Polish
hosts. They have chosen a really rich theme, The use of didactic materials
for developing pupils’ mathematical activities, which brings together all
the essential elements concerned with mathematics education and makes
it possible for participants to articulate their diverse experiences and per-
spectives in a way which helps all of us to reflect on and refine old issues
and bring to surface new ones. Choice of ‘subtle’ themes is an art in which
the Polish mathematics educators seem to excel. For example, the theme
of 1960 CIEAEM conference in Krakow was mathématiques de base. For
some it meant the logical foundations, to other the utilitarian topics which
should be in the school course for every child, to others again it might have
meant the framework of elementary ideas which is the key to the pursuit of
higher levels of the subject in its current state of development. The aim of
the conference was to reconcile these many aspects. I believe that the theme
of this conference has many parallels with the 1960 conference. However
much I tried to focus on an aspect of the theme, I kept returning to the
following three areas:
– The nature of mathematics.
– How people learn, particularly mathematics.
– Perceptions of mathematics and the way people react to and engage with
mathematics.
In this plenary, I will grapple with these ideas, but not systematically.
The International Programme Committee of CIEAEM 55 made it clear
in their Second Announcement that much discussion and research had
taken place on teaching aids and structural materials as embodiments of
mathematical structures in the past. The aim of this conference was to
interpret ‘didactic materials’ in the broadest sense and shift the emphasis
from materials themselves as an issue for discussion to the use of these in the
learning and teaching of mathematics. I shall therefore use ‘teaching aids’
to encompass structured and unstructured materials, including computers
and calculators, used to support the teaching and learning of mathematics.

1. TEACHING AIDS AND THEIR USE

Let me begin by demonstrating to you some examples of artefacts and tools,

which, I have found, often interest teachers of mathematics in the UK.
These are either commercial packages with interesting mathematics, often
misused, or structured apparatus designed to demonstrate mathematical
properties and principles.
 TEACHING AIDS IN MATHEMATICS 315

In the UK there seems to be a great tendency among teachers to be

looking for such ‘good ideas’ for teaching. If ideas and resources appeal,
for whatever reasons, they are taken in the classroom. If they work, they
become a part of the teachers’ repertoire, if they do not, one can always
look for something else. More recently, however, the function of providing
good ideas and recommending resources has been taken over by the cen-
tral government agencies along with prescribing the best time, sequence
and methods of teaching. This is not the time or the place to discuss this
phenomenon beyond offering a context to the listeners for the reasons why
I may be selecting and emphasising some issues.
Let me take an example of the use of fractions blocks that had led pupils
to drawing fraction rectangles to calculate the answer for, say, 1/2 + 1/4.
Some pupils (Figure 1) drew two rectangles and divided one in halves
and another in quarters and counted the shaded parts and the total number
of parts to get the answer 2/6, others divided the two rectangles in quarters
and did the same to get the answer 3/8. It was not even clear if those pupils
who obtained the correct answer of 3/4 could justify why the answer was
correct with reference to the tool used.
With regard to misconceptions about fractions, such as the above,
Dickson et al. (1984) illustrated six totally different manifestations of the
fraction 3/5. According to these authors,
One of the difficulties of operating with fractions, decimals and percentages is that
they have a multiplicity of meanings. Thus any particular number, say 3/5 (or 0.6 or
60%), can be interpreted concretely in many ways, all of which occur in everyday
life applications. This is in contrast to the whole numbers, which are used mainly
either for counting discrete objects, or counting repetitions of measuring units as
in working out lengths, and so on.
The interplay among and connections between objects (structured or
unstructured), images, language and symbols that lead to mathematical
reasoning and the stating of mathematical propositions of very wide gen-
erality is well worth a closer study. I believe that the subtle distinction
between the way mathematical ideas are constructed from objects and the
particular characteristics of the objects is often not clear in many teachers’

Figure 1. Children’s solutions of a fraction problem.

316 AFZAL AHMED ET AL.

minds. For example, when we draw a triangle on a sheet of paper and by

means of this we prove a general proposition that the three angles add up to
180◦ , it is worth reflecting on how it is that this very particular triangle leads
us to deduce something of such wide generality. If we examine closely the
figure we have drawn, it will be obvious that it is not a triangle at all—three
rather uneven marks, possibly with blunt corners! This does not seem to
make any difference to the proof, though. In this case the triangle really
is an idea, not an object. It is a mental image drawn from the real world,
which aids mathematical thinking and can be much richer than an object.
Papert (1980) described such mental vehicles as “objects-to-think-with”.
The first issue of The Bulletin of The Association for Teaching Aids
in Mathematics, outlined in the Editorial (Fletcher, 1955) that it will carry
articles covering the whole field of mathematics teaching, paying particular
attention to the use and development of teaching apparatus and visual aids.
It went on to say,
The teaching of mathematics requires constant research; and research which aims
to advance knowledge of the craft of teaching is just as difficult as research which
aims to advance knowledge of mathematical techniques, and perhaps it is even
more important. No one can do it better than those who are actively working in
the classroom. . .
Since these early days, we have seen a considerable increase in research
and literature on ‘human learning’ as well as on the development in tech-
nological aids in learning. A clearer articulation of the purposes and the
economical and effective utilisation of these insights and tools in order to
achieve these purposes are a challenge to all those interested in mathemat-
ics education. I do not believe that teachers can remain on the fringe of this
process. At The Mathematics Centre, University College Chichester, the
major focus of our work concerns the active involvement of teachers in the
research process as well as in the interpretation and formulation of theory.

2. AIMS OF TEACHING MATHEMATICS INFLUENCE THE USE OF

TEACHING AIDS

There are profound and ongoing discussions on the nature and the science of
mathematics education and research at the international level. As mentioned
earlier, our view of why we teach mathematics and how it can be learned
effectively is bound to influence the approach to teaching and hence, the
use of teaching aids. For the purpose of illustrating this argument further,
consider the following ‘crude’ polarisation.
• Mathematical procedures are taught to all the school pupils because they
will help them in everyday life as well as in application.
 TEACHING AIDS IN MATHEMATICS 317

Figure 2. Noticing patterns in a multiplication table: e.g. 6 × 12 = 8 × 9.

• Ninety-five percent of the population will need to use less than 5% of

the procedures on the syllabus either for everyday life or for apply-
ing to sciences, industry or commerce. Hence, teaching mathematics is
not mainly about the content but about processes such as abstraction,
generalisation, proof etc.
In order to illustrate the above, let me take two equally polarised exam-
ples of teaching approaches used to accompany the above beliefs.
Pupils can be asked to practice multiplication by offering them 20 or
30 sets of numbers to multiply. On the other hand, they can be offered a
multiplication table square such as the one illustrated in Figure 2 and asked
to investigate what happens if the two diagonally opposite numbers in a
square of their choice are multiplied.
The second approach is obviously a rich one as it allows a range of
explorations and questions such as: ‘Does it only work with 2 × 2 squares?
Does it work with rectangles? What about other shapes? What about other
sizes of table squares?’ It can also lead to new discoveries and new questions
to follow up.
To justify the second approach, one would have to believe something
like:

Learning mathematics encourages the attitudes, habits of thoughts, patterns of

thinking, strategies etc, which enable all to comprehend and respond to new situ-
ations, which they have not met before.

Dienes (1978) stressed the abstract character of mathematics. For him, it

is completely stripped of any outside irrelevancies and only the conceptual
318 AFZAL AHMED ET AL.

bare bones have been retained. This ‘cutting through the noise’ and getting
rid of irrelevancies and getting down to real message is, according to Dienes,
an asset which will enable all to cope with the diverse and evolving contexts
of our lives.
Central to the process of abstraction in mathematics is the discovery
and representation of regularities or patterns. To quote Steen (1990):
Mathematics is an exploratory science that seeks to understand every kind of
pattern—patterns that occur in nature, patterns invented by the human mind, and
even patterns created by other patterns. To grow mathematically, children must be
exposed to a rich variety of patterns appropriate to their own lives through which
they can see variety, regularity and interconnections.

This, for me, implies that the discovery and expression of patterns and
relationships require action on the part of learners regardless of age or
ability. The fact that mathematical relationships can be communicated in
a variety of ways makes it accessible to all children and adults. Hence, I
believe, the fundamental concepts of mathematics have to be drawn from
human experiences and existence. Perhaps the formalising of mathematics
has often prevented us from regarding ‘common sense’ based on experience
as a valid, indispensable and legitimate basis for checking the mathematical
procedures and algorithms. Obviously, the use of didactic materials/tools
can play an important role in the discovery and expression of relation-
ships. I would now like to focus on the use and characteristics of teaching
aids.

3. CHARACTERISTICS OF TEACHING AIDS

Biggs (1972) classified the process of discovering mathematics in five cate-

gories: fortuitous, free and exploratory, guided, directed, and programmed.
The broad implications being that, at one extreme, fortuitous discovery
cannot be planned but it does happen. At the other extreme, programmed
discovery implies a rigid and directed learning sequence. It may be tempt-
ing to classify didactic materials to parallel this classification particularly
when we have examples of structured apparatus such as Stern, Cuisenaire
and Dienes’ blocks and availability of materials such as counters, pebbles
and commercial packages which are not designed with a particular math-
ematical structure or property in mind. A more productive perspective on
materials would be to ask how we can offer materials with sufficient open-
ness to encourage children to describe the different ways in which they
perceive things, while ensuring support for their mathematical develop-
ment.
 TEACHING AIDS IN MATHEMATICS 319

Dewey (1966) saw play as being of value at all levels of development

and maturation.

The first stage of contact with any material, at whatever age of maturity, must
inevitably be of trial and error sort. An individual must actually try, in play, to
do something with material. . . then note the interaction of his energy and that of
material employed. This is what happens when a child first begins to build blocks,
and it is equally what happens when a scientific man in his laboratory begins to
experiment with unfamiliar objects.

The advantages of mathematical play were also stressed by many math-

ematics educators. For example,

Mathematical play can be profitably used by people of all ages when faced with
new mathematical situations. We believe that the use of this play can extend the par-
ticipant’s mathematical horizons; increase the connections between their separate
pieces of mathematical knowledge, engender a positive attitude towards the sub-
ject; and improve successful learning and understanding in mathematics generally.
(Holton et al., 2001)

By mathematical play we meant that part of the process used to solve

mathematical problems, which involves both experimentation and creativ-
ity to generate ideas, and using formal rules of mathematics to follow any
ideas to some sort of conclusion. There are no obvious short-term goals for
mathematical play; it is designed to allow complete freedom on the part of
the solvers to wander over the mathematical landscape available to them.
However, there is a long-term goal and that is the solution of the problem
in hand. The play will often go further than is necessary for the solution of
the current problem.
Hutt (1966) draws a distinction between exploration and play. She sees
exploration as occurring in novel situation and as being directional with
the goal of determining the properties of an object. On the other hand, play
occurs only in a known environment with a goal of not ‘what does this
object do’ but rather ‘what can be done with this object’.
In our description of mathematical play, the following implications
about how tools are presented are implicit.
– They must allow student-centered activity with the student in charge of
the process.
– They utilise students’ current knowledge.
– They help develop links between students’ current mental schemata
while they are interacting with the tools.
– They reinforce current knowledge.
– They assist future problem solving/mathematical activity through en-
hancing future access to knowledge.
320 AFZAL AHMED ET AL.

Through raising the above points I have attempted to suggest that al-
though tools can vary in the degree of inherent or built-in mathematical
structures, tools cannot ensure that a particular understanding will come
about. Different students will engage with the same tool in different ways
depending on the conceptions they bring with them and hence will establish
different understanding. Teachers’ role is crucial in the way they introduce
the use of the tools.
We now come to computers.

4. COMPUTER AS A MEDIUM FOR TEACHING AIDS

Papert (1980) believed that before we had computers there were not many
points of contact between fundamental and engaging aspects of mathemat-
ics and experiences firmly planted in everyday life.
But the computer—a mathematics-speaking being in the midst of the everyday life
of the home, school and workplace—is able to provide such links. The challenge
to education is to find ways to exploit them.
Twenty three years later, to what extent are we any nearer to responding
to Papert’s challenge in the context of access to the increasingly sophis-
ticated electronic aids as well as evidence on learning and acquisition of
knowledge?
“Everybody Counts”, The report on the Future of Mathematics by
the USA National Research Council (1989), stated,
In spite of the intimate intellectual link between mathematics and computing,
school mathematics has responded hardly at all to curricular changes implied
by the computer revolution. Curricula, texts, tests, and teaching habits—but not
the students- are all products of the pre-computer age. Little could be worse for
mathematics education than an environment in which schools hold students back
from learning what they find natural.
My colleagues Adrian and Alison will now respond to the above is-
sues concerning the use of technology in the teaching and the learning of
mathematics.

4.1. Examples from a project on linking algebraic and geometric

reasoning
I (Adrian) want to rephrase Papert’s question in a slightly different form:
We have many powerful ICT tools—for doing mathematics, for learning
mathematics and for teaching mathematics—but how can we harness them
to best effect?
 TEACHING AIDS IN MATHEMATICS 321

Figure 3. A photo of a roof structure.

My examples are taken from a current project for the UK’s Qualifi-
cations and Curriculum Authority (QCA) on which I am working with
Kenneth Ruthven from the University of Cambridge: Linking algebraic
and geometric reasoning with dynamic geometry software, and also from
two articles by Oldknow (2003a, 2003b).
Through technology such as digital cameras, scanners and the Inter-
net we have easy access to a wealth of digital images in a variety of
common formats (jpeg, tiff, bmp, etc.). These enable teachers and stu-
dents easily to bring images from the outside world into the mathematics
classroom. For example, the image in Figure 3 was scanned from a pho-
tograph reproduced on the title page of the Mathematical Association’s
journal: The Mathematical Gazette Vol. 86 No. 507 Nov. 2002. It shows
part of the roof structure of Stockport railway station, near Manchester,
UK. Such an image can easily be imported as part of the background for
a sketch in dynamic software such as the Geometer’s Sketchpad (GSP)
or Cabri Geometry II Plus—both of which are now common in many
schools.
We can identify several features of mathematical interest in this image—
for example, there is a sequence of (green) circles whose radii are dimin-
ishing as they become more distant. So we could explore geometric ideas
of perspective by drawing lines joining corresponding points in the image.
Similarly we could explore numerical ideas of perspective by taking mea-
surements from the image. There also appears to be arcs of ellipses in the
image, so we could explore algebraic ideas from coordinate geometry by
superimposing axes and plotting graphs of functions (Figure 4).
322 AFZAL AHMED ET AL.

Figure 4. Mathematisation of the roof structure.

Using such tools as digital images, together with software to provide

geometric, numeric and algebraic tools for their analysis, we have the
means to bring the so-called ‘real world’ into the classroom—or wherever
else learning takes place. We can use such images with pupils of all ages.
For example, what sort of mathematical questions could you raise from the
images in Figure 5? How would such tools as Sketchpad or Cabri enable
you to explore them?
With an image like the one in Figure 5(d) of the Merlion fountain in
Singapore harbour you can take measurements from the drawing, such as
the height of the fountain, and seek to find its physical equivalent, maybe
using the Internet. In this way, the models we superimpose can be inter-
preted to give physical results, such as finding the velocity with which the
water leaves the dragon’s mouth, or the angle at which it enters the har-
bour. In Figure 6 a quadratic model is used with its origin in the mouth. The
parameter a1 determines the quadratic function f (x) = a1 x2 . The software
provides a number of utilities to help vary a1 —among which the most vi-
sually effective is ‘animation’—where we can control the rate at which a1
is varied, as well as the set of values it is constrained to take.
So, here is an example where we have the technology, but not yet a clear
body of what we would call ‘best-practice’ in its educational use. The UK
government has invested huge sums of money in ICT in education over the
past 5 years, but its use in the teaching of many subjects in the curriculum
is still far from widespread and far from satisfactory. The government is
 TEACHING AIDS IN MATHEMATICS 323

Figure 5. Photos to explore.

now setting a new strategy for ICT in schools with a new focus: “to unlock
the value that ICT can undoubtedly bring to education” (Charles Clarke,
Minister for Education May 21st 2003; DfES 2003).
Alison will now illustrate how the power of ICT tools can be made
accessible to teachers.
324 AFZAL AHMED ET AL.

Figure 6. A model of the Singapore harbour fountain.

4.2. Making the power of ICT tools accessible to teachers

In the UK, between 1999 and 2003, £230,000,000 (320,000,000 euro or
1,472,000,000 zloty) has been allocated to provide additional training for
ALL state school teachers and librarians to develop their use of information
technology. Despite this high level of funding, a recent evaluation report
of this initiative said, in relation to mathematics teachers,

. . .although they know the general advantages of ICT use, many mathematics
teachers remain unaware of the potential of specific software and tools: for ex-
ample, the power of the data handling facilities on graphical calculators or the
facility of graph plotting software to transform general shapes. They are less able
to employ ICT to meet the different needs of pupils, and because of weak planning
are more liable to be drawn in to teaching ICT skills to the detriment of the math-
ematics which the ICT is intended to support (Office for Standard in Education,
2000).

In developing teachers’ use of technology, there are two questions worth

considering:
1. How do the technological tools enhance the teaching and learning pro-
cesses?
2. How do teachers perceive the technology in relation to the mathematics
that is being learned?
In response to the first question, Verillon and Rabardel (1995) say, “Tools
are NOT neutral, they change the actions of the users and deeply affect their
conceptualisation of reality.” This leads us to consider, what is it that the
tools “make happen”?
 TEACHING AIDS IN MATHEMATICS 325

Figure 7. A model of the number line in Geometer’s Sketchpad.

In the first example explored, The Geometer’s Sketchpad software is

used to model a number line on which a variable, x and some related
functions are shown (see Figure 7). As the variable is dragged, so questions
can be posed that encourage pupils to explore the nature of some related
functions. For example,
– Where will all of the points coincide?
– Can you predict where 5x will lie on the number line. . . for the given
value of x? for any value of x?
The power of this technological tool lies in the way that teacher and
pupils can physically vary the value of x and determine whether initial
conjectures are true for all cases.
This leads to the second question, “How do teachers perceive the tech-
nology in relation to the mathematics that is being learned?” or, put another
way, “What are the inter-relationships between the teacher’s view of the
mathematics and the way in which the technological tool is used?”
The example in Figure 8 has been used with teachers during professional
development activities to initiate discussions around these questions.
Two linear functions y1(x) and y2(x) are entered into a graph-plotting
package, graphical calculator, or in this case the interactive mathematics
package, Texas Instruments TI Interactive.
Teachers are asked to predict what the resulting graph of y1(x) * y2(x)
might look like.
The resulting graphs often led to further explorations on the part of
the teachers, involving changing the functions y1(x) and y2(x). Of course,
most teachers could confirm the result, based on their subject knowledge;
however, many say they have never approached the teaching of quadratic
326 AFZAL AHMED ET AL.

Figure 8. Exploring linear functions.

functions in this way with their pupils. The ICT was prompting a review of
the teaching methodology and encouraging teachers to ask questions such
as, “Why do we not talk about the roots of linear functions when there is
an obvious mathematical progression from these to the roots of quadratic
functions?”
In France, classroom research with teachers carried out by Laborde
(2001) reported “the role played by technology moved from being a useful
amplifier or provider of data towards being an essential constituent of the
meaning of tasks” as teachers developed their use of technology in the
classroom.
To finish my contribution, I will quote Papert (1980):
We are learning how to make computers with which children love to communicate.
When this communication occurs, children learn mathematics as a living language.

Some 23 years later, are we now beginning to realise Papert’s vision

by developing technological tools that speak the language of mathematics,
with individual dialects that capitalise on human intuitiveness?

5. FINAL REMARKS

To sum up and end this plenary, I (Afzal) would like us to be aware that how
materials and tools are used is the most important factor, since teachers can
use: good materials well; good materials badly; bad materials well and bad
materials badly.
 TEACHING AIDS IN MATHEMATICS 327

Hence, the effective use of didactical materials used in the classroom

will depend on the nature of classroom tasks, role of the teacher and the
climate and social culture of the classroom.

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328 AFZAL AHMED ET AL.

School of Teacher Education,

University College Chichester,
Upper Bongor Road,
Bongor Regis,
West Sussex,
PO21 1HR
United Kingdom,
Telephone: +44(0) 1798 812467
E-mail: [email protected]