Effective Mathematics Education Software in the Primary School: A Teachers' Perspective

Abstract

What types of mathematics education software do primary school teachers want? This paper reports the finding of a year long study focused on extracting ideas and beliefs from teachers about what types of mathematics education software they feel they could and would use within their classrooms. This paper addresses the following two questions; “What design aspects do teachers desire in mathematics education programs?” and “What type of mathematics education programs do teachers believe will most benefit their students?”. These questions were addressed through a series of interviews conducted with teachers from five local primary school. A test suite of programs was developed to emphases different types of existing mathematical programs. The teachers responses to each of these programs were carefully recorded and analysed. At a software development level the teachers feedback suggested fifteen possible starting hypnotises for design principles on how to develop effective mathematics education programs.