Exploring the Co-Development of Mathematical and Technological Knowledge Among African American Students

Abstract

This study examines African American students’ interactions with the graphing calculator as a tool to support their mathematical learning. Two participants, chosen through purposive sampling, were the focus of this study. The participants were presented with a task-based interview, and the strategies they employed in solving these tasks with the help of a graphing calculator were examined. The participants’ strategies were analyzed using Goos, Galbraith, Renshaw, and Geiger’s (2003) framework of the varying modes of sophistication with which students work and interact with technology and the ways in which technology can mediate learning. These modes include technology as master, technology as servant, technology as partner, and technology as an extension of self. In solving the mathematical tasks, the participants’ modes of interacting with the graphing calculator technology were influenced by how and when they chose to use the graphing calculator. They were also influenced by their ability to reinforce their mathematical and technological knowledge mutually. It is this ability to develop an interactive relationship between mathematical and technological knowledge that shaped the participants’ fluency in solving the mathematical tasks.