Title: An Educational Enquiry into the use of Concept Mapping and Multimedia to Enhance the Understanding o
1An Educational Enquiry into the use of Concept
Mapping and Multimedia to Enhance the
Understanding of Mathematics
- By
- Fionnuala Flanagan
- ITTE Conference
- Trinity College
- July 2002
2Piaget
- Cognitive theorist.
- Believed that a child learns by exploring
manipulating and examining objects, which leads
to understanding and theories Bee, H., 1995. The
developing child.
3Flash 4.0
- Flash was developed by Macromedia in 1996
- Vector graphics editor and animation tool
- Standard fro creating high-impact vector based
web sites - Sound
- Interactivity
- Graphics
- Animations
- Multiple browsers and platforms.
4Mathematical Concepts
- Sets
- Area Volume
- Trogonometry
5Concept Mapping
- spatial representations of concepts and their
interrelationships that are intended to represent
the knowledge structures that humans store in
their minds, Jonassen, Beissner, Yacci,
(1993). - Concept maps have been described as cognitive
tools which facilitate higher-order thinking
through deep reflective thinking which must take
place for meaningful learning to occur (Norman,
1993). This allows the learner to internalise new
knowledge, which will help formulate concepts
that the learner can actively use to solve
problems. - Okebukola et al., (1993) were of the belief that
concept mapping and its results are predictive
of problem solving performance.
6Concept Map
Food
provides
provides
Energy
Nutrients
can be
can be
liquid
solid
7Purpose of the Study
- This study set out to investigate the
effectiveness of implementing a new methodology
involving the introduction multimedia software,
flash 4.0 and concept mapping into the classroom
environment and to examine their potential for
enhancing the understanding of Mathematics for
Transition Year students. The focus topic, as
decided by the students, was Area Volume.
8Objective of the Study
- Students confidence
- Appreciation of Mathematics
- Enjoyment of Mathematics
- Understanding of Mathematics
- Develop problem-solving skills
9Research
- Junior Certificate Mathematics Syllabus
- Multimedia as an aid to learning
- Concept mapping as a learning tool
- Problem-solving skills in Mathematics
10Junior Certificate Mathematics Syllabus
- 1966 until 2002- Department of Education and
Science. - Domain of the teacher.
- Lack of reviews of teaching practices.
- March 2002- Department in conjuction with the
National Council for Curriculum and Assessment
(NCCA) - Action Research
11Multimedia
- Control
- Self-paced
- Actively engaged-constructing knowledge
- Learning is enhanced- visuals
- sound
- text
- motion
12Concept mapping
- Promotes-Higher Order thinking
- Develops-problem-solving skills
- Effective - collaborative environment
- Misconceptions
13Problem-solving
- Improved- a) methodology
- b) work environment
- Collaborative learning environment
14Methodology Action Research
- action research is systematic, critical and
self-critical enquiry made public, which is
carried out by practitioners and aims to inform
(their) educational judgements and decisions in
order to improve educational action. (Bassey,
1995., Fineagan, 2001)
15Methodology Action Research
- How can I improve the process of education
here? (McNiff, Lomax Whitehead, 1996) - Action Research involves the practitioner at the
center of the research investigating their own
practice. (McNiff, Lomax Whitehead, 1996)
16Action Research
- What is your research focus?
- Why have you chosen this as a focus?
- What kind of evidence can you produce to show
what is happening? - What can you you do about what you find?
- What kind of evidence can you produce to show
that what you are doing is having an impact? - How will you evaluate that impact?
- How will you ensure that any judgements you might
make are reasonably fair and accurate? - What will you do then?
17Implementation
- Transition Year
- Pre- Post DATs Test
- Homogenous pairs
- Junior Certificate Mathematics Question
- Action research Cycles-Two
18Evaluation Conclusions
- Evaluation -Concept Mapping
- Evaluation -Multimedia
- Analysis-Learning styles
- Analysis- Differential Aptitude tests.
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21Evaluation
- Concept Mapping
- Aided students in solving Mathematics problem
- Ordinary -clear, concise and logical.
- Honours-work was correct but not very clear
- Both groups- benefitted through learning in a
collaborative environment. - Concept mapping aided in structuring the steps
taken to solve that Maths problem. - Concept mapping helped them to establish where
they made errors in solving the Maths question - Aided in the transfer of the solution into
animation format
- Multimedia
- Students enjoyed using Flash
- Ordinary level group- confidence improved
- Animation helped them to understand Area
Volume. - Animation assisted in making Mathematics clearer.
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24Evaluation
- Learning styles
- Active Reflective learners
- Sensing Intuitive learners
- Visual Verbal learners
- Sequential Global learners
- Differential AptitudeTests
- DATs- assess students aptitudes
- Pre- Post-Test
- Mathematical ability asessed Numerical Ability,
Mechanical Reasonong, Abstract Reasoning, Space
Relations
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27Conclusions
- Concept Mapping- visual tool
- Animation educational tool
- Learning Styles- all styles catered for.
- DATs- improvement in Mechanical Abstract
Reasoning, and Space Relations - Mathematical skills ability- improved.
28Conclusions
- Winter (1989)- six main principles for conduct of
Action research - Reflexivity
- Dialectics
- Collaborative resource
- Risk
- Theory practice transformation
29Theory
- ..to improve the educational system we must look
beyond classroom constraints to address cognitive
and psychological issues that cause
goodstudents to perform poorly and that rewards
some students but leaves other behind. By using
concept mapping and multimedia in a collaborative
learning environment, hidden strengths are
discovered, synergistic communication can
flourish, student learning skills are improved
and learning performance is enhanced the
teacher becomes catalyst and the student is
empowered.
30PERCEPTION AND METHODOLOGY CAUSE AND
EFFECT One of the classic examples in the
field of self-fulfilling prophecies is of a
computer in England that was accidentally
programmed incorrectly. In academic terms, it
labeled a class of bright kids as dumb kids
and a class of supposedly dumb kids bright.
And that computer report was the primary
criterion that created the teachers paradigms
about their students at the beginning of the
year. When the administration finally
discovered that mistake five and a half months
later, they decided to test the kids again
without telling anyone what had happened. And the
results were amazing. The bright kids had gone
down significantly in IQ test points. They had
been seen and treated as mentally limited,
uncooperative, and difficult to teach. The
teachers paradigms had become a self-fulfilling
prophecy. But scores in the supposedly dumb
group had gone up. The teachers had treated them
as though they were bright, and their energy,
their hope, their optimism, their excitement had
reflected high individual expectations and worth
for those kids. These teachers were asked what
it was like during the first few weeks of the
term. For some reason, our methods werent
working, they replied. So we had to change our
methods. The information showed that the kids
were bright. If things werent working well, they
figured it had to be the teaching methods. So
they worked on methods. They were proactive they
worked in their circle of influence. Apparent
learner disability was nothing more or less than
teacher inflexibility. ( Covey, 1989)
Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he
is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he
will become as he can and should be. ( Goethe
.) (ibid)