Abstracts of Research Papers:

Research Papers

To Use or not to Use Graphic Calculators on Teaching Practice: A Case Study of Three Trainee Teachers’ Beliefs and Attitudes.
Sukrat Honey and Ted Graham
University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA
Ted.Graham@plymouth.ac.uk Suki.Honey@plymouth.ac.uk

This paper reports on a pilot study involving three PGCE (Post-Graduate Certificate in Education) students’ initial beliefs and attitudes towards graphic calculators, and their subsequent classroom practice whilst on their school-based training. This case study investigates whether the trainee-teachers modify their behaviour to meet the ‘ideal’ expected of them by their university tutors whilst on teaching practice, or do they revert to teaching the way they were taught? Are their beliefs and attitudes about mathematics and mathematics education evident from their classroom practice? These questions are considered with respect to the use of graphics calculators in mathematics classrooms. The initial questionnaire suggested three differing viewpoints, but the lesson observations and interviews suggest that the student with the positive attitude was almost as reticent to use graphics calculators as the one with the negative attitude.

Adapting “Problems to Prove” for CAS-Permitted Examinations
Peter Flynn
Department of Science and Mathematics Education, The University of Melbourne, VICTORIA, 3010, AUSTRALIA
p.flynn@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au

Allowing CAS use in upper secondary mathematics examinations pose epistemological, pedagogical and technical challenges as well as offering new possibilities for such assessment. This paper begins the analysis of how to test student abilities to demonstrate mathematical results through the setting of so-called “problems to prove” in CAS-permitted examinations. The influences of CAS on “problems to prove” are examined from both question design and student response perspectives. Using a classification scheme measuring the effect of CAS on intermediate steps, it was found that CAS influences “problems to prove” in a multitude of ways requiring acute examiner awareness. In some instances, “problems to prove” could be recast as “problems to find” but many situations exist where imaginative recasting of questions would be required to assess mathematical connections “gobbled up” by CAS.

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