Abstract

Modern technologies have become an integral part in our society and are increasingly shaping the teaching of mathematics at every level of education. In Austria, the academic school year 2021/22 will undergo an extensive digitalisation; all students who start secondary school will be equipped with a digital device. Our paper reports on anticipated concerns and benefits of mathematics teachers who are required to integrate technologies into teaching mathematics at the first year of secondary education. We conducted an exploratory interview study with secondary mathematics teachers before schools received their digital devices. The data was analysed with techniques based on grounded theory approaches. We discovered that for teachers the anticipated concerns and benefits were: (A) discrimination of students by technologies, (B) by using technologies, students may lose basic mathematical knowledge and skills, (C) individual and playful acquisition of new technological competencies by teachers, and (D) using technologies to enhance differentiation and individualisation in mathematics teaching. One of the key findings of our study is that mathematics teachers in Austria feel capable enough to integrate technologies into the teaching and learning of mathematics at the beginning of secondary education and do not express the need for further technical training. This finding contradicts previous studies and provides a starting point for future investigations.

Highlights

  • In the academic year 2021/2022 in Austria, 10-yearold students in first year secondary school will be equipped with either laptops or tablets with a digital pen and keyboard

  • Analysing the data indicated that for teachers, before implementing technologies at the beginning of secondary school, the following themes were of interest: (A) discrimination of students by technologies, (B) by using technologies, students may lose basic mathematical knowledge and skills, (C) individual and playful acquisition of new technological competencies by teachers, and (D) using technologies to enhance differentiation and individualisation in mathematics teaching

  • This traditional image meant that before integrating technologies into teaching and learning mathematics, we had to explain what we mean by the term technologies

Read more

Summary

Introduction

In the academic year 2021/2022 in Austria, 10-yearold students in first year secondary school will be equipped with either laptops or tablets with a digital pen and keyboard These digital devices will be owned by students for a contribution of 20-25% of the purchase price. According to Bingimlas (2009), widespread barriers include lack of teacher confidence, lack of teacher competencies and lack of access to resources. To some extent, these results were confirmed

Methods
Results
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call