Research has demonstrated that textbooks exert a considerable influence on students' learning opportunities and that technology has the potential to transform mathematics instruction. This brief report provides a systematic analysis of how technology tasks are integrated into secondary mathematics curricula by analyzing a sample of 20 textbooks.…

Can you solve the following Problem? There are 200 fish in an aquarium, and 99 percent of them are guppies. How many guppies must be removed to reduce the tank's guppy population to 98 percent? The key to this problem is to work backward by using the data given in figure 2 to determine the surface area of the top of the aquarium; then determine…

This mixed qualitative and quantitative methods study addressed the effect of technology on college algebra and survey of calculus students' understanding. This research study was conducted in fall 2016 on eight college algebra classes with a total of 315 students, and in summer 2017, on two survey of calculus classes with a total of 40 students…

Activities for Students appears five times each year in Mathematics Teacher, promoting student-centered activities that teachers can adapt for use in their own classroom. In the course of the activities presented here, students will "look for and make use of structure" by observing algebraic patterns in the power rule and "use…

Although the mathematics community has long accepted the concept of limit as the foundation of modern Calculus, the concept of limit itself has been marginalized in undergraduate Calculus education. In this paper, I analyze the strategy of conceptual conflict to teach the concept of limit with the aid of an online tool--Desmos graphing calculator.…

This paper reports on the role of the graphing calculator (GC) in the learning of derivatives and instantaneous rate of change. In a longitudinal study, we administered task based interviews before and after the introduction of calculus. We analyzed students' use of the GC in these interviews. This paper reports on the case of one student, Andy,…

If the prospective students of probability lack a background in mathematical proofs, hands-on classroom activities may work well to help them to learn to analyze problems correctly. For example, students may physically roll a die twice to count and compare the frequency of the sequences. Tools such as graphing calculators or Microsoft Excel®…

In this paper, we report a pilot study on engaging a group of undergraduate students to explore the limits of sin(x)/x and tan(x)/x as x approaches to 0, with the use of non-graphic scientific calculators. By comparing the results in the pretest and the post-test, we found that the students had improvements in the tested items, which involved the…

Since the 1990s, computer algebra systems (CAS) have been available in Australia as hand-held devices designed for students with the expectation that they will be used in the mathematics classroom. The data discussed in this paper was collected as part of a pilot study that investigated first year university mathematics and statistics students'…

This book's 28 chapters are adapted and updated from articles published in NCTM's "Journal for Research in Mathematics Education" between 2000 and 2010. The authors have rewritten and revised their work to make it clear, understandable, and--most of all--useful for mathematics teachers today. To help teachers even more, these articles…

In this article, the authors show how students can form familiar geometric figures on the calculator keypad and generate numbers that are all divisible by a common number. Students are intrigued by the results and want to know "why it works". The activities can be presented and students given an extended amount of time to think about…

The fundamental theorem of calculus, in its simplified complexity, connects differential and integral calculus. The power of the theorem comes not merely from recognizing it as a mathematical fact but from using it as a systematic tool. As a high school calculus teacher, the author developed and taught lessons on this fundamental theorem that were…

Quantitative literacy has been recognized as an important skill in the higher education and workforce communities, focusing on problem solving, reasoning, and real-world application. As a result, there is a need by various stakeholders in higher education and workforce communities to evaluate whether college students receive sufficient training on…

Technology can help develop understanding of abstract mathematical concepts through visualisation and graphic representation. The teaching and learning of calculus can be challenging as it involves abstract and complex ideas. The purpose of this study was to investigate how students and teachers attempt to use TI-Nspire, the latest graphing…

Evolving technology has played an important part in a common quadratic-function lesson. Having been mentioned repeatedly in numerous reform documents, a recurring lesson has involved changing the parameters in f(x) = ax[superscript 2] + bx + c and studying the effects on the graph. In both NCTM Yearbooks and NCTM Standards documents, technology is…