The purpose of this study has been to examine how teachers use and reflect on digital tools in mathematics education and what opportunities and obstacles they feel they come across when it comes to using the digital tools at their disposal. To answer this I asked myself the following questions: How do teachers use digital tools in mathematics education? In what ways do the teachers reflect upon the use of digital tools in mathematics education? What kind of opportunities and obstacles do the teachers come across when using digital tools in mathematics education? The study is based on a qualitative method with five classroom observations and five interviews with the class teachers. My study are based on Glover, Miller, Aviers and Doors idea of different concept of interactivity and Glover and Millers idea of different attitudes towards technology. My conclusion is that all teachers are using digital tools to some form of drill training in mathematics. All teachers except teacher 2 also use digital tools to immerse in mathematics. Teacher 4 use digital tools to develop students' mathematical communication. Something that all teachers see as a possibility with the digital tools is an easy way to individualize teaching. Further, teachers 3, 4 and 5 believes that good apps enable students, teachers and parents to take part of the student's progression in an easy way. All teachers, except teacher 3 believe that technical problems that can occur and are an obstacle when it comes to the use of digital tools in mathematics education. Teachers 2 and 5 also believe that access, or rather lack of access, to digital tools can be an obstacle in teaching mathematics. Teacher 1, 2 and 5 also addresses the aspect of time as an obstacle when using digital tools, both the time it takes to find apps or to start a computer. Something that all teachers agree upon is that to have all mathematics teaching based on digital tools wouldn’t be suitable because it can be difficult to get access to a pupils’ knowledge that way. The best, according to the teachers in this study, would be to complement mathematics teaching with other teaching methods as well. Despite their different views on the opportunities and obstacles, and reflections on digital tools all teachers are positive about using digital tools in mathematics education, although many of the teachers point out technical shortages which in most cases is due to insufficient IT-education.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:sh-28961 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Westman Prevell, Mathilda |
| Publisher | Södertörns högskola, Lärarutbildningen |
| 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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