INVESTIGATING THE DISTINCTIVE ROLE OF THE INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS FOR MATHEMATICS TEACHING

Year 2014, Volume: 1 , 141 - 152, 01.09.2014

Mauro De Vita Lieven Verschaffel Jan Elen

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

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