Preservice Middle School Mathematics Teachers’ Development of Flexibility and Strategy Use by Geometric Thinking in Dynamic Geometry Environments

Abstract

The current study, aimed to examine the development of flexibility and strategy use through instructional sequence encouraging the preservice middle school mathematics teachers’ geometric thinking and problem-solving performance on dynamic geometry environment. Mixed-method research design was used in the study. The study was conducted with 46 preservice middle school mathematics teachers selected by criterion sampling strategy. The data were collected through the tests including open-ended and multiple-choice questions. In the quantitative part of the study, it was attempted to identify whether the tasks affect problem solving skills and geometric thinking. The said individuals participated in six-week instructional sequence designed by the tasks of geometric constructions performed by GeoGebra. For the qualitative part, document analysis technique was used in order to illustrate the ways of this effect in detail and illustrate the development of flexibility and strategy use. It was observed that tasks by DGE improved the preservice middle school mathematics teachers’ scores of problem-solving and geometric thinking. Also, they solved the problems by representing the properties of higher thinking levels than the levels they had before participating in the instructional sequence enacted by GeoGebra. It is believed that this could encourage the improvement of their flexibility and strategy use.