Using Dynamic Geometry Software to Enhance Specialized Content Knowledge: Pre-Service Mathematics Teachers’ Perceptions

Abstract

The study aimed to expose how pre-service teachers perceived the value of an inquiry-based geometrical task with dynamic geometry software for increasing and deepening their understanding of the task itself, and for heightening their mathematical, pedagogical, and technological knowledge in the case of reflection and transformation. Twenty-seven pre-service teachers studying to become middle-school (junior high) mathematics teachers were assigned an inquiry-based geometrical task to explore -- both by conventional, low-tech means (paper and pencil) and then in a dynamic geometry software (DGS) environment -- the properties of objects formed by reflections in polygons (triangles and quadrilaterals) and to offer conjectures and proofs regarding the final polygon's shape and area concerning the original. The results show that the majority of participants indicated that DGS provided a valuable instrument for revising and expanding their knowledge, that the assignment demonstrated the value that technological tools have in teaching and learning processes, and the importance of adapting learning tasks in geometry to a dynamic geometry environment for expanding and deepening geometrical and pedagogical knowledge and reasoning skills.