The Effect of a Calculator Training Workshop for High School Teachers on their Students’ Performance on Florida State-Wide Assessments
Paul Laumakis and Marlena Herman

Department of Mathematics, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ, USA
laumakis@rowan.edu, herman@rowan.edu

This paper details the motivation, background, and analysis for studying the effect that an Increasing Achievement on Algebra Assessment (IAAA) workshop for a group of Florida high school teachers had on student performance in state-wide testing. The main focus of the workshop was to provide participating teachers with both instruction and activities related to problem-solving techniques using the TI-83 Plus handheld graphing calculator that the teachers could then use in an effort to better prepare their students for state-wide testing. Overall, students (n = 328) who were taught by IAAA-trained teachers between consecutive annual state-wide assessments had a greater gain in test scores than students (n = 202) who were taught by non-trained teachers. In particular, the data indicates a significant increase in scores for students taught by IAAA-trained teachers in a general mathematics course, as compared to no significant increase in scores for students taking that same course taught by non-trained teachers.

The Impact of the Graphical Approach on Students’ Understanding of the Formal Definition of Limit
Antonio Quesada, Richard L Einsporn and Muserref Wiggins

1Department of Theoretical and Applied Mathematics, University of Akron, Ohio, USA
quesada@uakron.edu

2Department of Statistics, University of Akron, Ohio, USA
rle@uakron.edu

3Department of Mathematics, Ursuline College, Ohio, USA
mwiggins@ursuline.edu

The purpose of this study was to determine if the use of a graphical teaching and learning approach via the graphing calculator enhances students’ understanding of the formal definition of limit. College students in six sections of Calculus I participated by completing a test prior to the introduction of the definition, and completing a second similar test after covering this topic. Students in four sections received traditional instruction on the formal definition of limit, but in two other sections an approach utilising graphing calculators was incorporated into the instruction for one and two days, respectively. Students who received the graphical instruction for two days performed significantly better on all but one of the conceptual items on the post-test, as compared to the students who received traditional instruction and with those who received the graphical instruction for only one day.

The Influence of Graphic Calculators on Secondary School Pupils’ Ways of Thinking about the Topic "Positivity and Negativity of Functions"
Muhammad Abu-Naja

Negev Regional Centre for Research and Development, Achva – Academic College of Education, 123/43 Ksaifa 84923, Israel
muhamadnja@gmail.com

Our research project examined the effects of graphic calculators amongst ninth grade pupils from Arab society in the Negev area in Israel. The goal of this research was to discover and characterise the ways of thinking in this population about the concept of positivity and negativity of functions. To perform this investigation we compared two groups of pupils: the experimental group (n = 95) studied the topic by means of graphic calculators, while the control group (n = 89) studied the same topic in the traditional way. For the purpose of this research we developed a questionnaire based on the material studied in class, such that each question could be answered using either method. The pupils in the experimental group understood the concept of positivity and negativity of functions better than did the pupils of the control group. We found that the use of graphic calculators encourages the development of significant thinking.

The Results of a Delayed Test in Descriptive Geometry
Rita Nagy-Kondor

University of Debrecen, Faculty of Engineering, Hungary
rita@mfk.unideb.hu

We examined the recollections by first-year technical college students of concepts in Descriptive Geometry four months after they had studied the subject; furthermore, we compared the relative efficiency between group of students who had been helped in their studies by computer programs and those who had used the traditional paper-and-pencil methods. We carried out a delayed test on the first-year students to analyse their understanding of concepts in Descriptive Geometry. Based on the results obtained from this test, we would like to establish whether there is a significant difference between the group who worked using DGS and the other group who used only paper and pencil, moreover we would like to find out which concepts are the "weak spots" for students and if there is any need to strengthen the conceptual structure of Descriptive Geometry.

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