Connecting Representations and Mathematical Ideas with GeoGebra

Abstract

Representations facilitate acquisition of mathematical notions and provide help to the learners in their thinking. A meaningful understanding of mathematical concepts can be attained when a variety of representations are developed and the functioning relationships are established among them. Traditional teaching approaches dominated by the use of chalk and board appear to be not so productive to help students establish connections between the representations. Nevertheless, the availability of instructional technology has enabled teachers to highlight interrelations between the representations of mathematical concepts so that their students could develop a much better understanding of these notions. In this chapter, we try illustrate opportunities that a recently developed computer program GeoGebra offers in teaching and learning mathematics. The scope of this chapter is limited to the discussion of three aspects of GeoGebra in teaching algebra. These include: supporting operational and structural conceptions of the functions, illustrating factual knowledge associated with the equation systems, and constructing graphical models for the solution of algebra problems.

Keywords

• GeoGebra
• algebra
• structural conception of function
• factual knowledge
• model construction
• algebra problems