The past years there has been a big media circus, that states that the Swedish schoolsystem is broken and with dropping results in PISA as a proof of this statement. Voices have been heard that teachers rely on textbooks in a voluminous way and some suggest that this is the main problem as Swedish students dropping in mathematics results. This study shows how teachers perceive their use of laboratory mathematics and is therefore based on a teacher perspective. What I want with this study is to show how teachers looks at the correlation between benefits and disadvantages in using laboratory mathematics, but also to create an awareness for understanding the difficulties that you may face as teacher if you want to use laboratory mathematics as a tool when teaching. In this study, the main focus is on how teachers use laboratory mathematics as an option when teaching. Nine teachers participated in an online survey and answered questions about how they use laboratory mathematics and what benefits or disadvantages it may comprehend. To add, two teachers also attended to a private interview and another two were observed. The result that was found is that teachers can see big advantages in using laboratory mathematics especially when teaching geometry. The teachers pinpoint how using laboratory mathematics supports students deeper understanding for the mathematic contents. Though, teachers also highlight that there is a urgent need for the teacher to have the knowledge to comprehend meaningful and aimful lessons. Apart from knowledge teachers points to the lack of time to plan and execute as a disadvantage. The lack of time combined with insufficient knowledge in how to use laboratory mathematics is the determiner if laboratory mathematics is seen as a possibility or an affliction.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-62635 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Nilsson, Björn |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för matematikdidaktik (MD) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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