INVESTIGATING THE DISTINCTIVE ROLE OF THE INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS FOR MATHEMATICS TEACHING

Abstract

Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) are a relatively new tool that provides interesting affordances in the classroom environment, such as construction of visualizations and multimedia. These affordances make IWBs an innovative tool with high potential for mathematics instructional environments. The research involved a small group of Italian mathematics teachers in secondary schools and aimed at exploiting the distinctive role of IWBs in mathematics teaching. Three essential elements were considered: the mathematical tasks on which students work, the discourse activities in the classroom and the support that IWBs give to the previous two elements. Analysing a first series of video recorded lessons, the teachers and the researcher engaged in a discussion about possible improvements relating the IWB use to enhance high-level mathematical tasks and productive discourse interaction. Outcomes of the discussion were used to design and enact a new set of lessons, again video recorded and analysed. Outcomes were compared with those of the previous set. Results show significant improvements in the tasks’ quality, in the classroom dynamics and in the exploitation of IWBs affordances. What emerged from the study is that IWBs technology may be used to enrich the lessons’ experience and that an attentive orchestration by the teacher leads to the construction of an effective and beneficial learning and teaching environment.

Keywords

• Interactive whiteboards,mathematics education,teaching/learning strategies

References

1. Alexander, R.J. (2008). Towards Dialogic Teaching. Rethinking classroom talk. (4th ed.). York, GB: Dialogos Bantchev, B. B. (2010). A Brief Tour to Dynamic Geometry Software. Retrieved from: http://www.math.bas.bg/omi/DidMod/Articles/BB-dgs.pdf Beauchamp, G., Kennewell, S., Tanner H., & Jones S. (2010). Interactive whiteboards and all that jazz: the contribution of musical metaphors to the analysis of classroom activity with interactive technologies. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 19 (2), 142 -157. Beauchamp, G., & Kennewell, S., (2010). Interactivity in the classroom and its impact on learning. Computers & Education 54 (3), 759-766. Collins, A., Brown J. S., & Newman, S. E. (1989). Cognitive Apprenticeship: Teaching the Crafts of Reading, Writing and Mathematics. In L.B. Resnick (ed) Knowledge, Learning and Instruction, Essays in honour of Robert Glaser (pp. 453-494). Hillsdale, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Glover, D., Miller, D., Averis, D., & Door, V. (2007). The evolution of an effective pedagogy for teachers using the interactive whiteboard in mathematics and modern languages: an empirical analysis from the secondary sector. Learning, Media and Technology, 32 (1), 5-20. Glover, D., & Miller, D. (2009). Optimising the use of interactive whiteboards: an application of developmental work research (DWR) in UK , Professional Development in Education 35(3), 469-483. Hennessy, S., Deaney, R., Ruthven, K., & Winterbottom, M. (2007). Pedagogical strategies for using the interactive whiteboard to foster learner participation in school science. Learning, Media and Technology, 32(3), 283–301. Hennessy, S., & London, L. (2013). Learning from international experiences with interactive whiteboards: The role of professional development in integrating the technology. OECD Education Working Paper 89. Hiebert, J., & Grouws, D. A. (2007). The effects of classroom mathematics teaching on students’ learning. In F. K. Lester (Ed.), Second Handbook of Research on Mathematics Teaching and Learning (pp. 371– 404). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Higgins, S., Falzon, C., Hall, I., Moseley, D., Smith, F., Smith, H. & Wall, K. (2005) Embedding ICT In The Literacy And Numeracy Strategies: Final Report. Newcastle, Newcastle University. Jewitt, C., Moss, G., & Cardini, A. (2007).Pace, interactivity and multimodality in teachers' design of texts for interactive whiteboards in the secondary school classroom. , Learning, Media and Technology, 32 (3), 302-318. Kennewell, S., Tanner, H., Jones, S., & Beauchamp, G. (2008). Analysing the use of interactive technology to implement interactive teaching. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 24(1), 61-73. Kennewell, S., & Beauchamp, G.(2007). The features of interactive whiteboards and their influence on learning, Learning, Media and Technology, 32(3), 227-241. Lombard, M., Snyder-Duch, J., and Bracken, C. C. (2002). Content Analysis in Mass Communication: Assessment and reporting of intercoder reliability. Human Communication Research, 28, 587 – 604. Mercer, N. (2004) Sociocultural discourse analysis: analysing classroom talk as a social mode of thinking. Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1(2), 137-168. Mercer, N., Hennessy, S., & Warwick, P. (2010). Using interactive whiteboards to orchestrate classroom dialogue. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 19 (2), 195–209. Miller, D.J., & Glover, D. (2007). Into the unknown: the professional development induction experience of secondary mathematics teachers using interactive whiteboard technology. Learning, Media and Technology, 32(3), 319-331. Miller, D.J., & Glover, D. (2010). Presentation or mediation: is there a need for 'interactive whiteboard technology-proficient’ teachers in secondary mathematics?. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 19 (2), 253- 259. Moss,G., Jewitt, C., Levaãiç,R., Armstrong,V., Cardini,A., & Castle, F., (2007) The Interactive Whiteboards, Pedagogy and Pupil Performance Evaluation: An Evaluation of the Schools Whiteboard Expansion (SWE) Project: London Challenge , School of Educational Foundations and Policy Studies, Institute of Education, University of London. Schoenfeld, A. H. (1983). Problem solving in the mathematics curriculum: A report,recommendations and an annotated bibliography. The Mathematical Association of America, MAA Notes, 1. Schoenfeld, A. H. (1992). Learning to think mathematically: Problem solving, metacognition, and sense-making in mathematics. In D. Grouws (Ed.), Handbook for Research on Mathematics Teaching and Learning (pp. 334-370). New York, NY: MacMillan. Schoenfeld, A. H. (2006). Mathematics teaching and learning. In P. A. Alexander & P. H. Winne (Eds.), Handbook of Educational Psychology (2nd ed.) (pp. 479-510). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Silver, E., Goussein, H., Gosen, D., Charambolous, C. & Font Strawhun, B. (2005). Moving from rhetoric to praxis: Issues faced by teachers in having students consider multiple solutions for problems in the mathematics classroom. The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 24 (3-4), 287–301. Sinclair, J. & Coulthard, M. (1975). Towards an Analysis of Discourse. Oxford,GB: Oxford University Press Smith, F., Hardman, F. & Higgins, S. (2006) The impact of interactive whiteboards on teacher-pupil interaction in the national literacy and numeracy strategies. British Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 443–457. Somekh, B., M. Haldane, Jones, K., Lewin, C., Steadman, S., Scrimshaw, P., Sing, S., & Woodrow , D.(2007). Evaluation of the Primary Schools Whiteboard Expansion Project. London, Report to the Department for Education and Skills. Stein, M.K., Grover, B., & Henningsen, M. (1996). Building student capacity for mathematical thinking and reasoning: an analysis of mathematical tasks used in reform classrooms. American Educational Research Journal, 33, 455-488. Stein, M.K., & Smith, M. (1998 a). Mathematical tasks as a framework for reflection: from research to practice. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 3 (4), 268-275. Stein, M.K., & Smith, M. (1998 b). Reflections on practice: selecting and creating mathematical tasks: from research to practice. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 3 (5), 344-350. Straesser, R . (2001). Cabri-géomètre: Does Dynamic Geometry Software (DGS) Change Geometry and its Teaching and Learning? International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning, 6 (3), 319-333. Warwick, P., & Kershner, R. (2008). Primary teachers’ understanding of the interactive whiteboard as a tool for children’s collaborative learning and knowledge-building. Learning, Media and Technology, 33(4), 269–287. Warwick, P., N. Mercer, R. Kershner & Kleine Staarman, J. (2010), In the Mind and in the Technology: The Vicarious Presence of the Teacher in Pupils' Learning of Science in Collaborative Group Activity at the Interactive Whiteboard, Computers and Education, 55(1), 350-362. Wolfe & Alexander, (2008). Argumentation and dialogic teaching: alternative pedagogies for a changing world. Beyond current horizons. Retrieved from: http://www.beyondcurrenthorizons.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/ch3_final_wolfealexander_argumentationalternativepedagogies_20081218.pdf