Exploring the impacts of using Geogebra software on secondary school students’ misconceptions in trigonometric functions

Background and Objectives: Previous studies in Iran have explored the impact of using technology on improving students’ mathematical understanding. However, no study was conducted in relation to the impact of using technology on students’ mathematical misconceptions. This study explored the impact o...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: F. Radmehr, H. Rahimian
Format: Article
Language:fas
Published: Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University (SRTTU) 2020-09-01
Series:Fanāvarī-i āmūzish
Subjects:
Online Access:https://jte.sru.ac.ir/article_1411_aff2f22d5c7db9c597f80bc8539c555a.pdf
id doaj-44f1c8089bb249959694bf38a5b0aede
record_format Article
collection DOAJ
language fas
format Article
sources DOAJ
author F. Radmehr
H. Rahimian
spellingShingle F. Radmehr
H. Rahimian
Exploring the impacts of using Geogebra software on secondary school students’ misconceptions in trigonometric functions
Fanāvarī-i āmūzish
educational software
geogebra
misconception
trigonometric functions
upper secondary school students
author_facet F. Radmehr
H. Rahimian
author_sort F. Radmehr
title Exploring the impacts of using Geogebra software on secondary school students’ misconceptions in trigonometric functions
title_short Exploring the impacts of using Geogebra software on secondary school students’ misconceptions in trigonometric functions
title_full Exploring the impacts of using Geogebra software on secondary school students’ misconceptions in trigonometric functions
title_fullStr Exploring the impacts of using Geogebra software on secondary school students’ misconceptions in trigonometric functions
title_full_unstemmed Exploring the impacts of using Geogebra software on secondary school students’ misconceptions in trigonometric functions
title_sort exploring the impacts of using geogebra software on secondary school students’ misconceptions in trigonometric functions
publisher Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University (SRTTU)
series Fanāvarī-i āmūzish
issn 2008-0441
2345-5462
publishDate 2020-09-01
description Background and Objectives: Previous studies in Iran have explored the impact of using technology on improving students’ mathematical understanding. However, no study was conducted in relation to the impact of using technology on students’ mathematical misconceptions. This study explored the impact of using software in developing students’ misconceptions. In detail, the impact of using GeoGebra software on secondary school students’ misconceptions related to concepts such as angle scale, trigonometric angles, periodicity, minimum and maximum of trigonometric functions were explored using a two-tier diagnostic test. One of the novelties of this study is the use of a two-tier diagnostic test to explore misconceptions resulting from using the software. Methods: The statistical population of this study comprises all grade 11 students of Golbahar and Golmakan in the academic year 2015-2016. Three classes were chosen from two different schools in these cities, one was considered as the control group (40 students) and the other two classes were considered as the experimental group (26 students). The instruments were a pre-test and a post-test (two-tier diagnostic test).‎ Four categories of misconceptions were identified based on the relevant literature and students’ responses to the pre-test. Finally, these misconceptions were analyzed by the chi-square test. Findings: The findings showed that Geogebra software helped students in the experimental group enormously in understanding concepts such as periodicity‎, ‎identifying minimum and maximum of trigonometric functions‎, ‎and prevented developing misconceptions related to them. Analyzing students’ responses in the control group that received traditional teaching showed that several students did not able to calculate the periodicity of trigonometric functions. This difficulty observed both when students calculated the periodicity from the graphs and also when calculated the periodicity from the algebraic form of trigonometric functions. The strength of using the software includes observing many trigonometric graphs in the software environment, the ability to place trigonometric functions with different input on a coordinate axis and comparing them, and the manipulations performed by the students themselves on trigonometric graphs. These strengths prevented students from developing misconceptions about the concepts of frequency and minimum and maximum values. However, in relation to trigonometric angles‎, ‎using the software caused developing more misconceptions for the test group, and had no significant impact on preventing misconceptions in relation to the scale of angle‎. It seems due to the nature of the angle scale, in which the conversion from radians to degrees (or vice versa) is done by a series of mathematical operations, using Geogebra could not impact students’ misconceptions in this matter. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that teachers should be very cautious in selecting and using teaching aids in the classroom to prevent developing mathematical misconceptions associated with using the teaching aids. Therefore, we recommend mathematics education researchers and mathematics curriculum planners to conduct several studies on different softwares frequently used in mathematics classes, determine the pros and cons of these tools, and share their results with mathematics teachers. Sharing these results will help mathematics teachers to adapt their teaching accordingly based on the findings of these studies.   ===================================================================================== COPYRIGHTS  ©2020 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.  =====================================================================================
topic educational software
geogebra
misconception
trigonometric functions
upper secondary school students
url https://jte.sru.ac.ir/article_1411_aff2f22d5c7db9c597f80bc8539c555a.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT fradmehr exploringtheimpactsofusinggeogebrasoftwareonsecondaryschoolstudentsmisconceptionsintrigonometricfunctions
AT hrahimian exploringtheimpactsofusinggeogebrasoftwareonsecondaryschoolstudentsmisconceptionsintrigonometricfunctions
_version_ 1721380807863435264
spelling doaj-44f1c8089bb249959694bf38a5b0aede2021-06-12T07:24:14ZfasShahid Rajaee Teacher Training University (SRTTU)Fanāvarī-i āmūzish2008-04412345-54622020-09-0114476577410.22061/jte.2019.4688.21051411Exploring the impacts of using Geogebra software on secondary school students’ misconceptions in trigonometric functionsF. Radmehr0H. Rahimian1Department of Applied Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematical Sciences, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, IranDepartment of Applied Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematical Sciences, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, IranBackground and Objectives: Previous studies in Iran have explored the impact of using technology on improving students’ mathematical understanding. However, no study was conducted in relation to the impact of using technology on students’ mathematical misconceptions. This study explored the impact of using software in developing students’ misconceptions. In detail, the impact of using GeoGebra software on secondary school students’ misconceptions related to concepts such as angle scale, trigonometric angles, periodicity, minimum and maximum of trigonometric functions were explored using a two-tier diagnostic test. One of the novelties of this study is the use of a two-tier diagnostic test to explore misconceptions resulting from using the software. Methods: The statistical population of this study comprises all grade 11 students of Golbahar and Golmakan in the academic year 2015-2016. Three classes were chosen from two different schools in these cities, one was considered as the control group (40 students) and the other two classes were considered as the experimental group (26 students). The instruments were a pre-test and a post-test (two-tier diagnostic test).‎ Four categories of misconceptions were identified based on the relevant literature and students’ responses to the pre-test. Finally, these misconceptions were analyzed by the chi-square test. Findings: The findings showed that Geogebra software helped students in the experimental group enormously in understanding concepts such as periodicity‎, ‎identifying minimum and maximum of trigonometric functions‎, ‎and prevented developing misconceptions related to them. Analyzing students’ responses in the control group that received traditional teaching showed that several students did not able to calculate the periodicity of trigonometric functions. This difficulty observed both when students calculated the periodicity from the graphs and also when calculated the periodicity from the algebraic form of trigonometric functions. The strength of using the software includes observing many trigonometric graphs in the software environment, the ability to place trigonometric functions with different input on a coordinate axis and comparing them, and the manipulations performed by the students themselves on trigonometric graphs. These strengths prevented students from developing misconceptions about the concepts of frequency and minimum and maximum values. However, in relation to trigonometric angles‎, ‎using the software caused developing more misconceptions for the test group, and had no significant impact on preventing misconceptions in relation to the scale of angle‎. It seems due to the nature of the angle scale, in which the conversion from radians to degrees (or vice versa) is done by a series of mathematical operations, using Geogebra could not impact students’ misconceptions in this matter. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that teachers should be very cautious in selecting and using teaching aids in the classroom to prevent developing mathematical misconceptions associated with using the teaching aids. Therefore, we recommend mathematics education researchers and mathematics curriculum planners to conduct several studies on different softwares frequently used in mathematics classes, determine the pros and cons of these tools, and share their results with mathematics teachers. Sharing these results will help mathematics teachers to adapt their teaching accordingly based on the findings of these studies.   ===================================================================================== COPYRIGHTS  ©2020 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.  =====================================================================================https://jte.sru.ac.ir/article_1411_aff2f22d5c7db9c597f80bc8539c555a.pdfeducational softwaregeogebramisconceptiontrigonometric functionsupper secondary school students