1. GeoGebra Dynamic Mathematics for Everyone
Improving Students’ and Teachers’ Motivations in Learning Mathematics with Technology
Zsolt Lavicza
Faculty of Education University of Cambridge

2. Overview Aims of the project Developing the project
Participation in the project
Actions needed for the project
Building on the project (Partner Schools)
It was Markus’ masters thesis and then he put it on the web and it became very successful

3. Aims of the Project To get students like maths more to find
what motivates them;
how to engage them;
how to improve their maths skills
How to build and support a sustainable
system/network of engaged learners and teachers

4. What can/should be done?
Ask for information from different stakeholders
Students
Teachers
Head Teachers
Policy Makers
Develop a training and support systems
Trial in a small number of schools
Further improve materials
Disseminate results system-wide

5. How the project could be structured?
Asking – Questionnaire
Analyzing – Analysis of questionnaires
Developing – Joint work on training materials
Trialing – Try materials in training and schools
Improving – Reassess materials based on data
Disseminating – Share with wider audience
Building sustainability – Partner School Network
It was

6. Asking
Questionnaire

7. Questionnaire What motivates What difficulties they face?
Students;
Teachers;
Head Teachers;
Policy Makers? (documentary analysis)
What difficulties they face?
What they wish to have for improvement?
What are their beliefs (maths/technology)?
It was

8. Questionnaire Exploratory study Possible structure of Questionnaire
Learn about the field and situation
Approach: Grounded Theory (Glaser&Strauss, 1967)
Possible structure of Questionnaire
Background (closed)
Exploratory triplets (Maths/Technology) (open)
Motivations
Difficulties
Wishes
Beliefs (for research?) (closed)
Participation/feedback request (closed)
It was

9. Questionnaire - Students
Background
Gender; age; availability/use of technology – home/school; computer skills; extent of computer use; GeoGebra knowledge home-school…
Motivation – Difficulties – Wishes
Maths
Technology/GeoGebra
Participation
Comments
Keep it short and simple
It was

10. Questionnaire – Teachers!!!
Background
Gender; age; how long teach; tech skills/usage; % of tech in/out of school; GeoGebra knowledge/usage; equipment availability?
(Extended questionnaire here)
Motivation – Difficulties – Wishes
Maths
Technology/GeoGebra
Beliefs (next)
Participation
Comments
It was

11. Questionnaire - Teachers
Beliefs Section – for research purposes (repeated?)
Technology part of Mathematical Literacy
Views on technology-assisted teaching and learning
Factors hindering technology-assisted teaching and learning …
It was

12. Questionnaire – Head Teachers
Background of schools
Equipment/uses of computers/technology; teachers’ use of technology; support for technology; training; skills;
Strategy of school with maths/technology
Motivation – Difficulties – Wishes
Maths
Technology/GeoGebra
Participation
Comments
It was

13. Questionnaire – Policy Makers
Possibly not necessary to ask them directly
Review of Policy Documents
Curricula
Directives
Recommendations for teachers
Teacher training
Documentary analysis
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14. Questionnaires
It was

15. Questionnaire - Decisions
Audience – All groups?
Coverage – Which schools?
Extent – Basic vs. complex?
Purpose – Information only or recruitment?
Type - Paper vs. on-line?
Culture – Suitability/Language for Austria/CzechR
Frequency – Once/more times?
Other – Many other considerations
It was

16. Analyzing
Analysis of Questionnaire

17. Analysis of Questionnaire
What do we get?
Feedback on current state
Feedback for developments
Analysis
Closed items – Statistics (easy)
Open items – Qualitative: Constant comparison (complex)
Purpose
Immediate consideration (report on Meeting 1)
Further research (student theses, publications)
Who?
Students + Researchers
It was

18. Developing
Joint work on
training materials

19. Aims of NCETM project
Establish a group of GeoGebra experts who can lead activities in England
Build a network of teachers/professional developers in England
Create support network for teachers
Find out together how to run professional development activities
Develop materials together that are aligned with the English curriculum
Write papers and present in conferences
Prepare for the establishment of GeoGebra Institutes in England

20. NCETM project Participants
Teachers with GeoGebra knowledge
9 (instead of 4) teachers from different part of England
Work on different levels and topics of GeoGebra
Collaborative activities and sharing with the community (local Wiki)
To offer support and professional development for teachers in England

21. NCETM project Data collection Analysis/Outcome
Collecting a pool of GeoGebra materials from participant teachers
Videotape meetings and workshops
Interview participants
Workshop feedback questionnaire
Analysis/Outcome
Identify topics/levels in the English curriculum
Incorporate ideas from teachers into development (PD and software)

22. NCETM project Theoretical framework
Utilising experiences from the LCM and ICTML projects in Norway by Barbara Jaworski and Anne Berit Fuglestad
Utilising communities of practice research and activity theory
Tight collaboration of teachers and researchers (didacticians)

23. NCETM project
A learning community is group of people who (express the intention to) work together on common areas of interest and with respect to common goals -- and learn through the collaborative process.
In a learning community, “learning involves transformation of participation in collaborative endeavour”
(Rogoff, Matusov & White 1996, p. 388).

24. NCETM project Encourage teachers to work together
work with mathematics educators
engage in research activities
evaluate their own work
think about curriculum design
publish their work
concentrate on topics within their own interest
develop networks (locally)

25. Proposed frameworks Use ideas and theories of NCETM Project
Community of Practice (teachers+researchers)
Activity Theory (review of development complexity)
Together with
Design Experiments (countinuous trial and review materials)
Grounded Theory for analyzing data
It was

26. Proposed Actions/Timeline Y1
Sept/Oct: Questionnaire/Analysis
Nov: ProjMeet-1: Analysis presentations; development/participation decisions
Nov-Feb: Initial material preparation
March: ProjMeet-2: Training preparation/schedule
March-May: Initial trainings and data collection
June: ProjMeet-3: Analysis/discussion of training data – refining training – plans for Partner School Network – Plans for Year2
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27. Disseminating
Share with wider audience

28. Incremental extension/expansion
Within project partners
Continuous improvement of materials
Within regions of the project
Trialing in close regions
Within project countries
Recommending for wider use within countries
Internationally
Within the IGI Institute Network
Developing GeoGebra Partner School Network
It was

29. Sustainability
Building a GeoGebra Partner School Network

30. GeoGebra Community If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far,
go together.
Warren Buffett
It was

31. World Wide User Community
62 Languages
190 Countries
100 Institutes (70 Countries)
GG in textbooks over 40 Countries
43 Developers
200 Translators
Online Learning Objects
900,000 unique visitors/month
400,000 downloads /month
6.2 million downloads in 2011
On 5.5 million classroom laptops
GeoGebra is growing all around the world

32. Visitors from190 countries

33. GeoGebraWiki – Shared examples

34. GeoGebraTube Material Platform Direct upload from GeoGebra Rating
Comments
Florian Sonner, Germany 34

35. GeoGebraTube Uploads
It was

36. GeoGebraForum – Questions/help

37. Aims of the International GeoGebra Institute (IGI)
Teacher training and support
Offer workshops & support
Material and software development
Share free materials
Research
Encourage and coordinate collaborative research
(Outreach)
Enable disadvantaged communities
Three main aims of IGI

38. 100 Current GeoGebra Institutes 70 countries. More coming soon …

40. Difficulties of serving large communities
GIs can reach mostly local teachers/communities
Members work in different institutions
Large geographical areas to cover
If many people involved that results too large staff
Maintain independence of work
It is very important to do research on GeoGebra both on the use and development

41. Towards a GeoGebra Institute network
Rather than country-wide institutes, GI network serves better a country’s needs
Establishing local institutes, but encourage a coordinating committee (locally decided)
Individual application followed by a network application

42. Institute network case: Spain

43. Planned Institute Centres
Linz, Austria – Software development
Budapest, Hungary – Community support
Cambridge, UK – STEM and Research
Possible other centres

44. Community and project support
Assist the community with
Events
Research training
GeoGebra materials
Activities
Distribute responsibilities (Committees)
Research
Coordination
Support …

45. Initial ideas for Partner School Network
Involve more teachers in the community
Schools experimenting with the use of GeoGebra
Encourage collaboration among schools and teachers
Be able to offer more support
Sponsors can donate to schools
IGI website has many information about what is happening with GeoGebra

46. What is the GGB Partner School Network?
We should figure it out in this project
We should hear ideas from teachers and schools
We should learn from successes and difficulties of the GeoGebra Institute Network
We should have a working and active network
What kind of support such system would need?
Current ideas:
Involve- motivate- support –reward
Students
Teachers
Schools
It was

47. What are the requirements for GGB-PS?
Dedication to improvement of teaching with technology
Core group of GeoGebra users (Certification)
Train and support all teachers in schools
Show activities on GeoGebraTube (channels)
Engage in collaboration within, among PSs
Local – Regional – National – International
Some part(%) of teaching dedicated to GeoGebra
Show activities on the School website (Badge)
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48. How to support PSs? Development of: Organization of:
Certification/reward system for students, teachers, schools
The channel system in GeoGebraTube
Materials for a working system
Organization of:
Workshops, events, competitions, contests
Exchange programmes teacher/student (Erasmus)
Administration of:
All needs of PSs and try to find financial support
Membership, activities and collaboration
It should become prestigious and beneficial for schools being part of the PS Network
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49. Please comment and discuss any aspects of the
Thank you!!!
Please comment and discuss any aspects of the
project and plans!!!
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50. The Plan  Beginning of September Student interviews
3-5 pilot interviews – Write up individual reports
Czech-Austria meeting- summarise this report
Partner School ideas
Keep an open eye what you observe in your school – prepare a 3-5min presentation about your ideas
Project advertisement
Advertise the project on website and leave space for feedback
Project meeting – End of October
Discuss results from interviews
5min presentation for partner schools
Decide about the February seminars
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