Analysis of Approaches to the use of ICT in the Teaching of Mathematics

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICT) play an increasingly important role in learning and teaching. The way they are used in specific lessons is influenced by a number of factors, one of the most important of which is the teacher's beliefs about the use of ICT in education. The way teachers think about modern technologies is very important and greatly influences how they use ICT in their teaching. Our paper presents a partial output of research focusing on the influence of teachers' beliefs on the use of ICT in teaching.
 Within the presented research, lessons of several mathematics teachers were recorded longitudinally. The recordings from classes were subsequently coded by a team of researchers and analysed in detail on the basis of Grounded theory. Several different aspects of teaching were observed in the analysis:
 Forms of instruction, Teacher-pupil communication, Pupil activities at the blackboard, Pupil activity on PC or laptop, ICT involvement, Teacher activities, Phenomena in teaching using ICT, Used programs and applications and Testing. The results of this analysis were then compared with how teachers think about the use of ICT and how they characterize their own use of ICT in teaching.
 Even though all the monitored teachers characterized themselves as experienced users of ICT, the way they used technologies in their teaching was very different and often differed greatly from the positions they declared. As part of the paper, we present a comparison of the teaching styles of individual teachers and a comparison of their beliefs and proclamations with the reality that was observed in the lessons. Attention will also be paid to the impact of the actual use of ICT on the overall course of the lesson and the activity of the pupils. The results of the research show that the way in which the teacher's beliefs affect teaching is really crucial.