CAS-enabled technologies as ‘agents provocateurs’ in teaching and learning mathematical modeling in secondary school classrooms

This paper draws on a one year study of three secondary school classrooms to examine the nature of student-student-technology interaction when working in partnership with computer algebra systems (CAS) on mathematical modelling tasks and the classroom affordances and constraints that influence such interaction. The analysis of these data indicates that CAS enabled technologies have a role to play as provocateurs of productive student-student-teacher interaction in both small group and whole class settings. Our research indicates that technologies that incorporate CAS capabilities have the potential to mediate collaborative approaches to mathematical enquiry within life-related mathematical tasks. There has been interest by educational researchers and curriculum developers in the use of both mathematical modelling and digital technologies to enhance the learning experiences of students in secondary mathematics classrooms for at least the past two decades. Mathematical modelling – formulating a mathematical representation of a real worl