Prospective Mathematics Teachers' Technology-Based Presentations on Proportional Reasoning

This study investigated future teachers' use of technology in teaching proportional reasoning lessons in a senior-level college seminar. Seminar participants were preparing to teach mathematics at an elementary, middle, or secondary school, and the technology-based lesson was a capstone experience wherein they were to demonstrate proportional reasoning concepts or principles that were appropriate for students in the grade levels that they were preparing to teach. Presentations were videotaped, graded, and analyzed for mathematical and technological content. Analysis showed presentations Offered with respect to topics covered, prior knowledge required by learners, technological activities and extensions, and reported advantages or disadvantages of the technologies as applied within these lessons. Results also illustrated differences in the presentations based on the grade levels that the future teachers planned to teach. However, regardless of grade level, all the pre-service teachers used a common technology as well as a variety of particular technologies in presenting their lessons.