Abstract
The literature on the barriers encountered in the use of technology in education indicates that the internal barriers have a deterministic effect within this process. Therefore, it is important to determine the way teachers use technology as well as their opinions and attitudes towards technology in order to ensure effective use of technology in mathematics education. This study aims to determine the opinions and attitudes of secondary school mathematics teachers towards using technology in mathematics education. The convergent parallel design of a mixed methods study was used. The study included the participation of 57 teachers, who were determined on a voluntary basis using the convenience sampling method, from 22 different high schools in Turkey. A written opinion form and The Scale of Attitudes Towards Technology were used as data collection tools. The qualitative data obtained were analysed using descriptive and content analysis methods; quantitative data were analysed using multivariate analysis of variance. It was understood that the participants often used only smartboards in their lessons and they preferred teacher-centred classroom applications, which did not involve the hardware and software that allowed student interaction. It was found that the attitudes of mathematics teachers towards technology were “positive” which had a positive effect on using technology in lessons. It was observed that the attitudes of teachers towards technology did not change according to the training they received on using technology in lessons. It was concluded that the attitudes of teachers differed significantly across the scale or in various factors according to their age, the frequency of technology use in their lessons, the variety of hardware and software they use, and their opinions about the use of technology by the students. It can be argued that the positive attitudes of teachers towards technology had a positive effect on using technology in lessons.
Highlights
In modern day, where problems that are different from those encountered by the previous generations are experienced, there is an increasing need for individuals who value mathematics, have advanced mathematical thinking power, and can use mathematics in modeling and problem solving (Republic of Turkey Ministry of National Education [MoNE], 2013)
Looking at the opinions of mathematics teachers, it was understood that 49 teachers used technological tools at different frequencies in their lessons, and the remaining 8 did not use them at all (Table 2)
The majority of teachers stated that their reason for not using technological tools was the lack of equipment (Table 3)
Summary
In modern day, where problems that are different from those encountered by the previous generations are experienced, there is an increasing need for individuals who value mathematics, have advanced mathematical thinking power, and can use mathematics in modeling and problem solving (Republic of Turkey Ministry of National Education [MoNE], 2013). The developments and requirements in areas such as coding, big data, block chain and others have redirected the research problems of mathematics, increasing the requirement for individuals with advanced mathematic skills. In this context, the innovations that the effective use of technological tools could provide for mathematics. Enabling students to interact with technological tools such as computers, tablet computers, and smart (interactive) boards with appropriate software and content in mathematics education could activate their high-level cognitive skills, and they could construct their own mathematical knowledge. Students would be able to work on real/realistic problems in line with the requirements of the age, and use the time they save by avoiding long mathematical operations for reasoning and creative thinking
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