PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ MATHEMATICAL ENGAGEMENT WITH THE TI-92

(by Monde Mbekwa & Cyril Julie)

Keywords :
Technology ; TI-92 ; Pre-Service Teachers ; Mathematics ; Calculations ; Engagement ; Calculator

1. Introduction :

A very interesting piece of work with bring some food for thought by the writers. The TI-92
calculator is called a “Super calculator” by Short (1998) who also described it as a true computer
because of it’s powerful build-in software capabilities and the QWERTY keyboard at an affordable
price.

According to the two authors of this article, Mbekwa & Julie, the aim of the research was to observe
how technology affected the engagement of teachers with Mathematics. However, the fear of
technology in the classroom by teachers, has been a much debated and discussed topic for quite
some time.

Teachers cannot be blamed for feeling very apprehensive when it comes to the “unknown” seeing
that this emotion translates into a lack of confidence which will be noticed by the students . In the
teaching profession, this is the worst what can happen to any teacher as he/she would feel they have
lost a sense of authority (Granger et al., 2002) and therefore the respect of his/her students.

After reading and analysing the article, there were certain pertinent questions about what Mbekwa
& Julie mentioned as well as the way the research was conducted.

These questions are :

(a) What is the effects of technology in Mathematics ?

(b) Seeing that many English Second Language teachers are teaching Mathematics, how are
Language Barriers influencing the teaching of the subject ?
(c) Because the focus of the article is on a calculator, it would be interesting to see the how the
lack of resources will shape the availability of technology at schools.
(d) What are the various limitations of the TI-92, if any ?
(e) As the sample for this research were pre-service teachers with a low level Mathematics
background, to what extent is Mathematics suffering because of incompetent teachers ?

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2. Main Pionts
Point # 01 : Technology usage in class.
Point # 02 : Exploring Technology in a Second Language
Point # 03 : Mathematics, a scares Commodity
Point # 04 : Incompetency of Mathematics Teachers
Point # 05 : Mathematical Conjecture

3. Summary :

3.1. Views/Findings of Monde Mbekwa & Cyril Julie

This article is about the use of calculators by pre-service teachers in the classroom. Various aspects
were observed by the authors for example, the processes followed by these teachers when given a
calculation or problem to solve as well as the shortcomings of pre-service teachers in terms of using
this kind of technology. One of the issues raised, was the use of “old technology”, referring to a
pen/pencil and paper, in combination with “new technology”, the calculator.

The study mentioned that the Home or First language of some of these pre-service teachers, was not
English. Furthermore, the authors state that although certain mistakes were made by these teachers in
the tasks handed to them, it cannot be attributed to the fact that the first language was other than that
of English.

Many of pre-service teachers chosen for this study, had a Low Level Mathematics Experience, which
means that their Mathematical knowledge was limited to Grades 9 and 10 at high school. This was
intentional as the need for Mathematics teachers outstripped the supply. Hence, the study reflected
the reality of what was happening in schools. However, teachers who did not have an interest in the
subject, made instant Mathematics guru’s.

3.2. My own Views and Opinions of Article :

According to Hawkins, Stancavage, and Dossey (1998) the use of calculators in the classroom will
increase the good achievement by students. This seem to The more competent a learner is pertaining
to the use of a calculator, the more successes the student will attain (Mokros, & Tinker, 1987).

There are still many sceptics when it comes to the use of calculators at school seeing that it will
negatively affect a student’s Mathematical ability and literacy (Pomerantz, H., 1997). I agree with
this view to a certain extent as calculators, especially at primary school level, must be limited. In my
experience, many learners want to use the tool excessively to an extent where even simple mental
computations, for example 7 x 8 or 19 + 11, is done on it.

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4. Unknown Words/Expressions :

(a) Imperatives : According to The Free Dictionary means : Important, Extremely Urgent

(b) Algorithms : Wikipedia describes the word as is an effective method expressed as a finite
list[1] of well-defined instructions[2] for calculating a function as shown in Fig 1.

Fig. 1 Flow chart of an algorithm (Euclid's algorithm)

(c) Polynomials : According to purplemath.com, Polynomials are sums of these "variables and
exponents" expressions as portrayed in Fig 2.

Fig. 2 A typical polynomial

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(d) “ . . . unit of interaction.” : The website eiu.org, describes the term as actively engaged in
ongoing research into the physical, aural, visual, and gestural interactions between
humans and machines and the various permutations of those interactions.

(e) “ . . . inductive generalisation . . . “ : Wiki Answers describes inductive generalization as

when a sample of a population is taken and then a conclusion regarding the entire
population is made. For example, 80% of observed mice die when given the drug.
therefore 80% of all mice die when given the drug.

(f) TI-92 : The TI-92 (Table 1) is a graphing calculator which means this handheld calculator is
“of plotting graphs, solving simultaneous equations, and performing numerous other
tasks with variables” (Wikipedia, 2011). This QWERTY keyboard calculator was
manufactured by Texas Instruments and was introduced in 1995. The TI-92 was the
first calculator with 3D graphing and also came with a computer algebra system or
also known as CAS.

Table 1 : The TI-92 Graphing Calculator

Contrary to the overwhelming good features of the TI-92, there is one major drawback of this “Super
calculator” (Short, 1998). This excludes the absents of a backlight which let the user sometimes battle
to get the screen contras right and it’s bulky size. According to Graham (2003), the one source of
confusion when using the TI-92 for statistical work, it does not distinguish between a symbol which
must be written as a capital and one written in lower case. This differentiation is important seeing
that certain concepts are encapsulated in symbols. A good example is the symbol sigma, ∑, when
used in statistics, a Capital ∑ means “ sum of ”, whereas the lower case symbol , σ, indicates the
standard deviation.

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This kind of resistance to integrate technology into the curriculum, only exacerbated the digital
divide at an age where even “grades K-3 are amazingly more technology savvy than many adults
believe, including their parents and teachers” (NetDay, 2004). This generation is hungry for
anything that has buttons, a screen and most of the time, do what you want it do.

5. Comments :

(a) A calculator can sometimes cause more harm than good In my view, the following is important
to note regarding the use of calculators at Primary school :

(i) A learner must first master certain basic Mathematical skills like counting, addition and
subtraction and multiplication and division prior to the use of the calculators.

(ii) Learners can get too dependent on the calculator where an “instant” answer must be found to
a problem. Students must learn that it is human to make mistakes when using mental or
pencil-and-paper computations.

(iii) Many students can get spoiled by this tool to the extend where they get lazy and do
not want spend time to find out the detail behind the calculation.

I am aware that the above-mentioned are made off as myths which are mentioned by Van de
Walle ( 2007) but these are real concerns as a teacher dealing and observing issues happening
in class everyday.

(b) In the article it is stated that technology would be present by 2012 according to the Western
Cape Education Department (WCED). Up till now, it has not materialised as Khanya, which
has been tasked by the WCED will discontinue by 2012 according the Head of Department of
the Western Cape Education Department, Ms Penny Vinjevold ( e4africa, 2011).

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(c) The authors also wrongly assumed that the TI- 92 would be readily available in schools.
Resources, at many schools, are very scares as they have to face many challenges such as
socio- economic conditions and crime on a daily basis. The TI-92, is an expensive Graphing
Calculator in South African terms as the majority of school will not be able to afford it.
However, much cheaper, non scientific and scientific calculators are used currently by school
with great success.

(d) In the observation of the pre-service students, it was found that they tend to first work out the
sum or calculation by hand before confirming the answer on the TI-92. According to me, this
kind of behaviour will decrease as our children in schools are more exposed to technology
where they will feel more at ease using it and also trusting it from the outset.

(e) Another finding is that students did not make use of the resource provided and therefore
constantly requested help from the assistants. It is common that when a person is given a task,
he/she would grab the opportunity if a shorter, easier way can be found to complete it. It
human nature. Contrary to this, it is also human nature to search for answers independently if
no help is provided.If the students were not given assistants to help, in many cases they would
have figure out how to solve the problem with the help of the resources provided.

6. Purpose of Text :

The purpose of the text was to observe how the technology affected the pre-students’ engagement
with Mathematics. After completing this assignment where I had to read thought this article, I
discovered that a calculator must or can be used more in class and that it is not a crime to let
learners make use of it more frequently when they are experience calculation difficulty. I should see
the calculator as an assistant and not a downfall for the students. They will find Mathematics more
enjoyable as they discover the subject in more depth and gain knowledge at a faster rate.

I shall also allow the learners to solve Mathematical problems on their own as I often tend to jump
in and help without giving them a fair chance of finding the solution themselves. Teachers also
sometimes want things to happen now as they are under great pressure to finish the curriculum in
time. However, providing learners with the necessary resources, they may just surprise us with what
they came up with.

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7. Conclusion :

A calculator is here to stay and will evolve with time but it’s role cannot be questioned as it is a
valuable tool in the hands of our learners. Technology will demand a better understanding from us
and it is our duty as teachers to prepare our children adequately as we go into the future. Technology
must be embraced and not be seen as a thread.