Effects of geogebra on senior high school students mathematical understanding of rigid motion

Abstract

This study sought to determine effects of GeoGebra on Senior High School students‘ mathematical understanding of rigid motion. The study was conducted using students and mathematics teachers of Senior High School ‗A‘ in Ho in the Volta Region of Ghana. The sample size was made up of 100 students and four mathematics teachers. The control group was made up of 50 students and the experimental group comprised 50 students. The study was conducted using non-equivalent control group with pre-test and post-test design, a quasi-experimental approach using both qualitative and quantitative method. Instruments used for gathering data on the study were rigid motion achievement tests (pre-test & post-test), observations and questionnaires. Findings made with regards to difficulties SHS students have in performing rigid motion were: description of the line of reflection of reflected figures in a given diagram, interpretation of equations of lines of reflection, substitution of object points into formulae to arrive at image points, interpretation of translation vectors, and interpretation of clockwise and anticlockwise rotation. Other findings from the study further showed that these difficulties of students were as a result of factors such as the use of traditional approach to teach students rigid motion at the Junior High School level where formulae were given for the students to use without any practical knowledge of the concept, little or no integration of ICT in the teaching of rigid motion in order to show learners what to do through worked-out and modelled examples, in addition to practice for successful learning. Again, the results showed that there was a significant difference between the mean performances of the experimental group (M = 12.10, SD = 5.987) and control group (M = 5.98, SD =4.298), t (98) =5.872, p =.000 in the post-test. The average mean performances of each of the two groups showed that the experimental group performed better than the control group. It was recommended that mathematics teachers blend technology, pedagogy and content plus the relationships between them (Koehler & Mishra, 2008) in teaching geometry. This would help improve students‘ understanding of the concept. Also, in-service training and workshops should be organized for Senior High School teachers on mathematics specific software packages such as GeoGebra. GeoGebra introductory book, and instructional materials about GeoGebra and its integration into mathematics classrooms should also be developed and distributed to teachers. This would improve teachers‘ competence and confidence level to integrate ICT in the classroom.