Introducing a new ICT resource into mathematics classrooms

1. Introducing a new ICT resource into mathematics classrooms Alison Clark-Wilson Jenny Orton Frank Opoku Cindy Hunt

2. Aim of the pilot study The pilot study is designed to qualitatively evaluate the impact of using TI-Nspire in secondary school mathematics classrooms.

3. The project’s objectives are to: o trial TI-Nspire in secondary mathematics classroom settings and gain feedback from teachers and learners on their experiences; o to develop and/or validate teaching resources and approaches which exploit the advanced capabilities of TI-Nspire in unique and innovative ways in key stage 3 and 4 mathematics classrooms; o provide a significant professional development experience for all involved to inform the nature and level of professional development support offered by TI Education for TI-Nspire.

4. Project timeline: July 2007 Initial project conference Early lessons devised Sept 2007 School trials, supported by mentors Oct 2007 2nd project conference Revisions to exemplar TI-Nspire activities Dec 2007 Internal interim report Jan 2008 3rd project conference April 2008 Final project conference April –June 2008 Further development of pilot sites July 2008 Final project report published

5. Phase 1 • Pairs of teachers from each of 7 state secondary schools in Walsall, London, West Sussex and Southampton; • Schools have been selected across the attainment spectrum; • Teachers range in their experience - from 1 to 37 years; • Teachers range in their level of ICT confidence and competence.

6. Methodology: School based action research through which we begin to capture the subtleties of students’ mathematical learning within a TI-Nspire environment against the framework of the revised national curriculum.

7. Evaluating mathematical learning: Representing mathematics Analysing mathematics Using appropriate mathematical procedures Interpreting and evaluating mathematics Communicating and reflecting mathematics

8. Supporting evidence is being sought which may take the form of: • lesson plans and supporting files (i.e. Smart NoteBook files, Moodle pages); • Ti-Nspire files; • teachers’ lesson evaluations; • students’ work (.tns files and written work); • mentors’ lesson evaluations; • students’ lesson evaluations; • student and teacher surveys; • teachers’ ongoing reflections and informal observations.

9. Case study lesson 1: Trial and improvement Frank Opoku George Green’s School, London

10. What did I want the students to learn? • Efficiently substitute values using function notation. • See the relationship between values generated for the function and the shape of the graph of the function. • A procedure for finding the approximate solutions to quadratic equations by trial and improvement. 10 | TI Strictly Private

11. What activity was chosen? • Simple quadratic to solve by inspection – show 2 solutions and trial and improvement • Defining the function as f(x) in calculator page and use this to get better solutions • Find the second solution by defining the function as a spreadsheet cell and filling down to create trial and improvement a spaces and graphing the results as a scatter plot. 11 | TI Strictly Private

12. what mathematical learning took place? • More experience using f(x) notation to find values. • Increasing accuracy of solutions using trial and improvement. • Issues of accuracy – how you know the answer is the best to 2 d.p. • The relationship between the values and a curved graph. 12 | TI Strictly Private

13. Feedback From Pupils • What did you like about TI-nspire? • The way it does various things like drawing shapes and calculating sums • I like using different programmes like lists and spreadsheets • You can access more things • Better than writing, something different, a different way to learn • It’s like a small computer • The ability to choose different spreadsheet, graphs etc. I like this because we didn’t have to draw the graphs, it takes too long to draw and write 13 | TI Strictly Private

14. How was the lesson different for you as a pupil? • We had more discussing time to understand everything we were doing • We did not have to write which was nice • I don’t get the chance to use a mini computer in my other lessons. • It was different because it was all computer based and I didn’t have to draw the graph with a ruler. • It was a great opportunity to use the handhelds and other pupils don’t get to use it. • It was more fun because I understood better when I use the handheld I know what is going on. • The lesson felt more relaxed. It felt like I was working in a comfortable environment.

15. Case study lesson 2: Exploring gradients of perpendicular lines Cindy Hunt Davison High School, Worthing

16. Exploring gradients of perpendicular lines Year 10 (31 girls) Level 7 at Key Stage 3 (Grade A*/A GCSE) OCR Modular Course Stage 9 Aim: To explore the connection between the gradient of a linear function and the gradient of it’s perpendicular.

17. What we did and What happened?

20. What could be different?

21. Evaluating mathematical learning: Representing mathematics Analysing mathematics Using appropriate mathematical procedures Interpreting and evaluating mathematics Communicating and reflecting mathematics

22. So what are we learning from this research?

23. …about teacher development ? Time for teachers to become familiar with the technology, adopt, adapt and/or create resources and assimilate these into the curriculum is a critical factor. Opportunities to collaborate on the development and evaluation of resources

24. …about managing resources? Careful consideration of how students access TI-Nspire and, in particular, being able to identify learning outcomes in relation to named students.

25. …about the design of TI-Nspire activities? Single page activities - the activity centres around one particular representation. Multiple page activities - the activity uses TI-Nspire file which includes pages of different types to support the exploration of the mathematics. In both cases these can be pre-constructed TI-Nspire files or created “live” with the students

26. …about the nature of mathematical learning with TI-Nspire? In all cases, involvement in the project has enabled teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of students’ mathematical learning. TI-Nspire has provided a “window” to the meanings students make within a mathematically stimulating environment.

27. …about personalising learning: Where teachers were able to identify and scrutinise their students’ work, they were able to plan subsequent lessons which were more closely matched to their students’ needs.

28. …about the cultural dimension: There are TI-Nspire research projects in: Italy (Arzarello and Robutti) France (Artigue, Trouche, Aldon, Bardini) Netherlands (Driijvers) Australia (Arnold, Stacey, Pierce)

29. From research into practice Materials to support teachers: • Tutorials – button pressing guides for the handheld • Support material: a) simple files that stimulate deep mathematical discussion b) complete lessons exploiting one application c) activities allowing multiple representations of a problem • Activities exchange

30. From research into practice Wider support • Education Technology Consultant and T3 • CPD • support for peer-to-peer networking • Involvement in wider mathematics teaching discussion CAS conference Developing materials for hard to teach topics

31. From research into practice • School adoption models • Technical developments • Classroom management of resources

32. Introducing a new ICT resource into mathematics classrooms Alison Clark-Wilson Jenny Orton Frank Opoku Cindy Hunt