New Work Plans in the Classroom

Using CAS in the classroom provides many opportunities for improving student learning. However, to take advantage of such a powerful instrument as CAS requires changes to many aspects of the classroom. The different ways in which three pioneering Australian teachers adapted their teaching to use CAS are described. Two of the teachers taught an eight-week course for two consecutive years. They gave CAS different roles in the instruction and curriculum goals. One teacher used CAS in a restricted way with the primary goal of increasing understanding. The other teacher adopted CAS as another technique for solving standard problems and emphasised efficient routines. Over several years, the third teacher has evolved a method of teaching with CAS, moving from an early emphasis on teaching about CAS and using it for difficult problems to incorporating its use for primarily pedagogical aims. In reporting on these case studies we comment on the following issues related to teaching with CAS: different ways of organising the classroom, variety in approaches to teaching the use of CAS, the increased range of methods for solving problems and for teaching, the contrast between using of graphics calculators and CAS, the place of by-hand skills, using time for mathematics or technology, and the curriculum and assessment changes required in schools.