The effects of The Geometer's Sketchpad software on achievement of geometric knowledge of high school geometry students.

摘要

This study addressed the problem of improving achievement of geometric knowledge through instructional use of the software program The Geometer's Sketchpad (Jackiw, 1994). A posttest-only control-group quasi-experimental study was conducted to explore the capabilities of The Sketchpad.;Forty-seven female high school geometry students participated in the study. An inductive reasoning approach was the pedagogy of instruction. The experimentally manipulated independent variable was two levels of investigation for solving problems in geometry. The Geometer's Sketchpad (Jackiw, 1994) was the software tool used by subjects in the experimental group. Traditional geometry tools: ruler, pencil, protractor, and compass were used by subjects in the control group. The three dependent variables measured on a posttest were: geometric knowledge and construction and geometric conjecturing.;Descriptive findings on Hypothesis 1, which predicted a higher mean for the experimental group compared to the control group on posttest scores for the dependent variables Geometric Knowledge and Construction were not statistically significant at an alpha level of.05. Posttest results indicated the experimental group achieved only a slightly higher mean than the control group mean.;Descriptive findings on Hypothesis 2, which predicted a higher mean for the experimental group compared to the control group on posttest scores for the dependent variable Geometric Conjectures were statistically significant at an alpha level of.05. The calculated effect size ratio of.81 indicated a large practical difference between the experimental and control groups.;This study was based on the assumption that at the point where information processing strategies of both cognition and technology converge, powerful brain potential is activated to optimize learning. Results from the study indicated that students learn geometry skills with greater efficiency and understand geometry concepts at higher levels as a result of creating and manipulating dynamic visualization of geometric objects on the computer screen. Powerful technologies like the Geometer's Sketchpad (Jackiw, 1994) provide intelligent capabilities for improving learning and instruction.;Conclusions point to the importance of integrating cognitive technologies into the mathematics curriculum. This study also demonstrated the importance of preparing teachers with skills for implementing these technologies to empower student learning.