Researching principles of lesson design to realize the pedagogical opportunities of mathematics analysis software

Abstract

Taking advantage of pedagogical opportunities afforded by new technology requires appropriately designed lessons. This article reports on the use of ‘lesson study’ to research principles for the design of a lesson aiming to take advantage of multiple representations. The lesson, for year 10 students who had personal access to TI-Nspire, focused on quadratic functions. Following observation of nine different classes and teachers, four key principles emerged: focus on the main goal for that lesson (despite the possibilities offered by having many representations available); identify different purposes for using different representations to maintain engagement; establish naming protocols for variables that are treated differently when working with pen and paper and within a machine; and reduce any sources of cognitive load that are not essential.