Towards an ontology approach in teaching geometry

Abstract

In this paper, we present the results of an experiment that took place in a classroom of a junior high school. Instead of using the traditional methods where the teacher presents the knowledge (of a daily lesson) and the students assimilate in a passive mood, we set students to active hypothesis searching, thinking, exploring, trying and proving rules. As ontologies gather the information in a well-organized form, where relations between geometrical objects are exposed and explained, we took advantage of the properties of the circle’s central and inscribed angles, we connected them to the notion of regular polygons and created the liaison between the two ontologies of the circle and the regular polygons. The purpose of this assignment was to improve the students’ view of Mathematics. This process allowed the students to realize that Mathematics is a subject worthy of exploration and not just memorizing properties of a geometrical object. In this assignment, the students undertook activities that allowed them to observe, cooperate, speculate, verify and connect geometrical meanings with mathematical concepts.