Using Dynamic Coordinate Geometry as a Tool for Investigating Functions in a Course for Prospective Elementary School Teachers

Abstract The pre-service teachers in this study worked individually at computers on activities that were designed to investigate aspects of functions and their properties. The activities contained introductory, sketch-making and exploratory sections. Scores on activities that involved domain and range, odd and even functions, and function composition showed evidence of first decreasing from the mean scores on earlier activities and then increasing to match the earlier average scores. A final analysis of the future teachers' overall averages on the activities showed that these measures were lower than their overall course means, and this reinforced the finding that activities involving domain and range, odd and even functions, and function composition were more challenging. Recent research has shown that technology can enable students to: (1) make flexible connections between symbolic and graphic representations of functions; (2) exhibit greater evidence of a transition from an operational to a structural understanding of functions; and (3) perform better in creating and coordinating multiple representations o