| The purpose of this study was to (a) describe how teachers incorporated technology-generated representations into their first and second year of teaching; (b) understand their rationales for using such representations; (c) identify the factors which advanced and hindered their use of technology during instruction; and (d) determine how these practices compared to what they did in their pre-service preparation program. The participants in the study, six high school teachers, were graduates of a technology-rich mathematics teacher preparation program who taught at different secondary schools representing three school districts in the state of Virginia. Three of the subjects were first year teachers and three were second year teachers. The participants were interviewed at the beginning and end of the study concerning their views about the use and benefits of technology-generated representations in mathematics teaching and their motives for using these representations in the classroom. Each teacher further was observed during ten classroom periods over a four-month period to determine how he or she utilized multiple representations in classroom instruction. Notes on these observations focused on the type of technology used, the manner in which the technology was used, the technological activity method chosen, and the engagement level and student actions observed. The teacher roles undertaken, the mathematical content explored, the learning goals sought, and the assessment strategies used were also documented. Following each observation, a debriefing interview was performed to ascertain the rationales for the selection of the type of technology used for the lesson, the benefits associated with the use of the technology-generated representations, and the future planned use of these multiple representations. Additionally, electronic artifacts used in the classroom instruction during the study and data obtained during the teachers' university preparation program were collected. The findings indicated that the teachers, despite obstacles experienced in their individual situations, used technology-generated representations in their planning and instruction for higher-level purposes. Furthermore, they improved their abilities in working with the technology and expressed the desire to continue using the technology in their teaching. These findings have implications for technology integration in teacher preparation programs. |
