For What Purpose Do the Student Teachers Use Dgs? A Qualitative Study on the Case of Continuity

Abstract

Although numerous studies have investigated how technology affects academicachievement, very few have focused on the purpose of the use of technology in mathematicseducation. This current study examines how student teachers (STs) benefit from GeoGebra asone of the Dynamic Geometry Software (DGS) while solving continuity problems. In orderto have deeper insights and a better understanding of the intended purposes, a case studyresearch design was adopted for this study. Participants in the study were seven mathematicsSTs. Six open-ended problems were used to collect data. Three themes were found to berelevant for understanding how STs use DGS in a problem solving process: visualize, verify,and calculate. The paper also shows the potential misconceptions of the STs.