Developing Learning Materials Using Technology

Abstract

The purpose of this research is two. One is to develop learning materials using technology for middle school mathematics and the other is to let pre-service teachers understand school mathematics by examining what mathematical concept is introduced in each grade. In this study, we carried out a case study with 38 pre-service mathematics teachers. A theoretical basis of this study is the 'technology principle' by NCTM(2000) and teaching-learning methods by the Korea’s 7th curriculum. NCTM and Korea’s 7th mathematics curriculum proposes the utilization of technology in mathematics education, recommending the use of calculators and computers. Under this background, developing learning materials using graphs on a computer program was conducted with pre-service teachers. The technology that was used in this study is Grafeq. Program(Fig.1). Class activity is to construct real-world designs with functions and graphs. From these activities, pre-service teachers experienced re-analysis and re-constructing middle school mathematics.

Using mathematics program(Grafeq.), we executed classroom activities for developing materials assisting teaching-learning for 7th-9th grade mathematics. First, pre-service mathematics teachers examined and analyzed middle school mathematics textbook. And then they grasped main mathematical concepts(contents) in each grade(7th, 8th,9th grade). Using these main mathematical concepts(contents) from each grade, they constructed mathematical designs for each grade by Grafeq. program.

Mathematical designs developed by pre-service teachers can be utilizied to aid the teaching and learning of functional graphs in middle school mathematics. Students can find, in the above designs, the mathematical formulas related to what they are currently studying. Moreover, students can mathematically analyse the formulas and conditions used in the above designs. Our study helps pre-service mathematics teachers to examine and understand each grade mathematics and to develop learning materials(mathematical designs) for mathematics teaching in each grade. Pre-service mathematics teachers gained the belief that the activities using computer program can be applied effectively to teaching and learning school mathematics. Mathematical design activities using graphs in this study can be directly applied in mathematics classes at middle schools.