GeoGebra Integration in Elementary Initial Teacher Training: The Case of 3-D Shapes

<p class="0abstract">The integration of technology in learning is increasingly popular and inevitable, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. In mathematics education, Geogebra has been used as a pedagogical tool in learning mathematics from elementary to university. The present study aims to explore first-year prospective elementary teachers’ experience constructing 3-D shapes using GeoGebra. This study uses a case study method with 40 first-year prospective elementary teachers from an elementary initial teacher training from a public university in Riau, Indonesia. The participants worked in small groups and discussed some 3-D shapes through an online platform, and in the end, each participant reflected their attitudes towards the integration of GeoGebra in learning 3-D shapes. The findings show that prospective elementary teachers discussed six types of 3-D shapes; cube, rectangular prism, rectangular pyramid, cylinder, cone, and spheres. They prefer to discuss curved surfaces rather than flat surfaces of 3-D shapes. In addition, prospective elementary teachers have positive attitudes towards integrating GeoGebra in elementary initial teacher training. They believe that GeoGebra supports them to understand better the concepts of volume and surface area of 3-D shapes, facilitate students to understand the properties of a geometry object, and compare the object one made using hand drawing to using GeoGebra. Meanwhile, difficulty in using the tools to construct 3-D shapes in GeoGebra becomes a hinder to understand mathematics concepts and properties. The implication of this study is that there is a potential to integrate GeoGebra in mathematics learning in elementary teacher training.</p>

Formatively assessing prospective teachers’ skills in leading mathematics discussions

Mathematics discussions are important for helping students to develop conceptual understanding and to learn disciplinary norms and practices. In recent years, there has been increased attention to teaching prospective teachers to lead discussions with students. This paper examines the possibilities of designing a formative assessment that gathers information about prospective elementary teachers’ skills with leading problem-based mathematics discussions and makes sense of such information. A decomposition of the practice of leading discussions was developed and used to design the assessment. Nine first-year teachers who graduated from a range of different teacher education programs participated in the study. The findings reveal that our formative assessment works to gather information about teachers’ capabilities with leading discussions and that the associated tools support making sense of the information gathered. This suggests that such tools could be useful to support the formative assessment of the developing capabilities of prospective teachers.

A Comparative Study of First and Third Year Prospective Elementary Teachers’ Attitude Towards Technology-Based Mathematics Assessment

This study aims to determine how prospective elementary teachers' attitudes about technology-based mathematics assessment determine whether there are attitude differences between first and third-year prospective elementary teachers about technology-based mathematics assessment. This research is a comparative study with quantitative methods. The research data was conducted through an online survey, namely a questionnaire using Google Form. The populations of this study were 236 prospective elementary teachers with a sample size of 70 prospective elementary teachers. We use the proportion stratified random sampling technique to select the sample of this study. The results showed that the prospective elementary teachers have good attitudes toward technology-based mathematics assessment. This study also shows no difference between first and third-year prospective elementary teachers' attitudes towards the technology-based mathematics assessment.

EXPLORING PROSPECTIVE ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS TEACHERS’ KNOWLEDGE: A FOCUS ON FUNCTIONAL THINKING

The importance of students being acquainted with algebraic ideas before secondary education has been revealed in the research literature. It is therefore essential that prospective elementary teachers (PTs) be prepared to instill an early algebra perspective in their teaching. However, PTs often show difficulties in algebra content knowledge, which need to be diagnosed aiming to assist them in developing the required knowledge to teach according to that perspective. This study aims to understand what aspects of functional thinking Spanish and Portuguese elementary PTs exhibit at the beginning of their teacher education program. The findings show that although PTs from both countries use different strategies to generalize functional relationships, the occurrence of successful strategies is low. Also, most participants provide local approaches in their interpretation of relationships between variables and reveal difficulties in understanding and connecting different representations of functions. These difficulties show that PTs lack important knowledge about functional thinking. By providing a framework concerning the functional thinking required for PTs to teach within an early algebra perspective, we shed light on a necessary step for teacher education programs to diagnose PTs’ functional thinking and to assist them in developing the needed mathematical knowledge to teach accordingly.

The Effectiveness of Discussion Methods in Improving Prospective Elementary Teachers’ Learning Activities of Social Sciences

The implementation of this research was motivated by a lack of activity and student participation in lectures on elementary school social studies. Students tend to be silent without showing activity during lectures. This is certainly far from what is expected that in the lecture students should ideally participate actively in asking, answering, recording the essence of the lecture, presenting, and concluding the lecture material. The subject of the study was a student of the 2017 B class, which numbered 39 people. The formulation of the problem in this study is whether the application of effective discussion methods to increase the activeness of FKIP UNRI PGSD students in elementary school social studies. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the application of the discussion method in elementary school social studies lectures at the FKIP UNRI PGSD students. This type of research is descriptive with qualitative methods. Data collection techniques are observation and interview techniques. Based on the research data analysis shows that the activeness indicators ask questions, from the four active student meetings an average of 22 people 56. people (61.53%) and Activity Indicators present 26 people (66.66%).41%, indicators respond to questions or opinions, active students 22 people 56.41%, Activity Indicators discuss and work together active students 26 people (66.66%), Activity Indicators write material and summarize active student material 24 Based on the data that has been obtained, it can be concluded that the application of the discussion method in elementary school social studies lectures on PGSD students at FKIP UNRI effectively increases student activeness.