Styles of Pedagogies in Math Classroom:

Uses of Technology to Enhance Student Learning

Aracely Polanco

Manhattan College

December 10, 2018

 Abstract

Mathematics has always been a subject that students struggle with. It is up to teachers to

determine the method deemed most beneficial for their students. In today’s age, technology

shows to be one useful way to teach math, as students are surrounded by technology everywhere.

Technology can be beneficial for the teacher and their students as it is a new experience for

everyone in learning the online interactive activities. There are different methods for teaching

that should also be examined. In this paper, we are going to examine how technology can be

helpful to students learning math. It will be shown that it can help a variety of students as well,

such as English Language Learners. Technology does not have to be the main focus of one’s

teaching method, but it should be incorporated in order for students to experience interactive

activities.
 Many say that teaching mathematics is a gift. With teaching math comes the most

popular question from students, “When are we going to use this in the real world?” It’s difficult

for students to be able to keep their attention on a subject that they deem is useless in their

everyday life. For this reason, teachers must find the best strategy to teach math. If a teacher is

teaching math in a monotonous, boring format that relies on teacher-centered lessons, then the

student will not keep their focus on the subject. A teacher must find an approach to teach math

that centers the students and their needs. We will see different approaches that have been

examined that are beneficial for student learning. It is also important to note that those who have

been teaching for 10+ years versus those who have been teaching for less than five years have

different styles of teaching due to the fact that students are growing up in a different day and

time. Many ways can be used to teach math in a classroom, it does not matter the way you teach

it. What matters the most is how a teacher makes sure their method benefits the student. One

method that has been shown to be helpful throughout all generations of teachers is using

technology. Technology can be proven to aid the teacher in presenting lessons, but also benefit

the students.

During my 2018 fall semester in Manhattan College, I had the opportunity to observe

Math classes in the Bronx. My observations took place in the High School for Teaching and

Professions, a high school that’s main focus is to present to students the responsibilities that

teachers have. Students partake in teaching classes where they are taken to a computer lab and

learn how to make a lesson plan. On Wednesdays, the Senior class takes the role of mentors to

the Freshmen class by separating into groups and presenting them different ways in solving

problems. Throughout the semester, I was mainly in ninth grade classroom filled with English

Language Learners (ELL’s) students. One of the cooperating teachers, Mr. Rodriguez has been
teaching for 21 years, but only been teaching higher level mathematics for five years. He

considers himself as a teacher who learned how to teach students the “old-fashioned” way. He

states that the “old-fashioned” way to teach a class is teach through the textbook in a teacher-

centered lecture, give students examples to do in class and give homework problems from the

textbook. However, Mr. Rodriguez recognizes with today’s generation teaching by the textbook

is not the best way to teach math. For this reason, Mr. Rodriguez prefers teaching his ninth

graders with technology. He believes that even though students may experience teachers who

teach using the “old-fashion” way, it is best to introduce them to activities that will aid them for

any topic they encounter in the future. In his Algebra I class, students interact with technology

for at least two-three times a week. Students are given laptops to then go online to a website that

has students first take a performance task to examine what level the students are at, whether it be

beginner, standard, or advanced. From here, students go through lessons on their own with this

five-part activity that includes pre-quiz, lesson, activity, examples, and finally a post-quiz. This

website allows students to ask questions to a teacher online as there is always a Math teacher

available. Mr. Rodriguez walks around the room and helps students to make sure they are on

task. The only disadvantage to using the laptops is that by giving the students freedom to use the

laptops, they may get off course by going on websites that they should not be using such as

YouTube. However, this website shows to be extremely helpful overall to Mr. Rodriguez as he

can monitor how the students are performing in each task on his account. This is also beneficial

to students because if a student does not finish their work, they can complete it at home.

Students who participate actively in a math classroom have a better grasp of the concepts

taught. For this reason, engaging students through “play” allows students to have their own

unique experiences learning the topic. Teachers may feel uneasy allowing students to “play” in
the classroom, concerned that it is an ineffective way to spend class time and that it would steer

students off their learning course (Hensberry etc., 2018). By introducing students to games that

make learning math fun, it will motivate students to want to do their work. It should be known

that students are not to just be introduced an interactive online activity and be given the entire

class period to work on the activities. The teacher must make sure that the students are

understanding what they are learning and to make sure of this, the teacher must go around and

see how students are working and then take a break to have a group discussion to go over what

the students have learned. As stated in “Engaging Students with Mathematics through Play”, it is

better for students to lead the group discussion, that way they believe they were the ones to make

their own discoveries from their activity.

Technology has shown to have many advantages in classrooms worldwide as well.

Research has been conducted concerning 172 Mathematics teachers that were given laptops to

demonstrate if it was beneficial or not to include technology in their teachings. In table 1

(Khambaria etc., 2010), we can see how overall teachers believe that technology has benefited

their teaching. However, a majority of teachers believe that without the use of technology, they

are still able to teach. In table 2 (Khambaria etc., 2010), teachers show that technology was

extremely resourceful as teachers are able to use the internet at any given place. Lastly, in table 3

(Khambaria etc., 2010), the majority of teachers can agree to the fact that technology has been an

aid in their lesson planning. Teachers do have the ability to work without technology, but it’s

shown that teachers believe technology can be used as an aid.

As seen from table 1, teachers do not usually rely on technology, as they believe they can

teach without the use of technology. There are teachers that would rather teach with none at all

and have students focus on a teacher’s lectures. For those who do not use technology, they can
teach by using visuals for students. As Izsák, Beckmann and Kulow state, the best way to teach

word problems to students is by converting the words into numbers that can be solved. This can

be seen with the topic of fractions, a unit that most students show to struggle with. By showing

visual representations such as drawings, they can connect the numbers from the problem to

something that is relatable. For example, when looking at fractions, 1/8 can be represented with a

pizza pie so that students can look at the problem in terms of a “real life scenario”. Another

method is by placing students into groups. A teacher would use the “think, pair and share”

method with their students to have students work on their problem solving and communication

skills. Every student has their own way of solving problems because of different learning

capabilities. Students come from different backgrounds and cultures where they are taught at

home to learn in a certain way. When teachers force students to work together, it allows for the

students to see the differences in each person’s thinking processes. The main objective of “think,

pair, share” is to improve discourse in the classroom (Hunt etc., 2018). Before students are able

to be placed into pairs, a teacher must make sure it is clear that students understand the task

being given. The student’s understanding of the task may be different from what the task is truly

asking. Therefore, in order to avoid any confusion between pairs, the teacher must explain the

task at hand. After completing the task, students are to share their strategies with the class by

leading group discussions. In a way, this allows students to experience being the teachers. The

methods of “think, pair, share” and using visuals are two different learning styles that aid

students in learning math. “Think, pair, and share” allows students to be able to communicate

their thinking process and be able to present what they know to the class. Using visuals allows

students to use objects that they are already familiar with, such as a pizza or a stop sign, to
understand mathematical concepts. These methods show to be useful in a mathematics

classroom.

Using technology is an interesting method used to learn because it can combine subjects

together. This can be considered as learning Mathematics and English simultaneously. Over the

years, English Language Learners have shown to struggle with math as they are forced to not

only learn the concepts of math, but also learn it in a language that is not their own. For this

reason, ELL’s have shown to do poorly on standardized math tests. In Joven’s research paper, he

states that “more than 40% of US teachers have taught students who are partially English

proficient… only twelve percent had eight or more hours in professional development in how to

teach those students.” The question is, how do we teach the ELL’s when many teachers do not

have the proper training to teach them? This is when teachers would incorporate technology

because the students are able to use technology to be able to obtain a bilingual education. Math

instructors can slow the class down to ensure that each student understands the concepts,

however this becomes detrimental to the learning of other students in the class. Technology

allows students to do activities and perform assessments in bilingual settings so that they are able

to understand the questions in their native language. The math instructors will be able to use

technology to ensure that the students are understanding the math of their learning, but it also

allows students to have practice in learning in both native language and English.

The use of technology shows that it can be beneficial to any teacher, from those who

have many years of experience to those who are new to teaching. Technology does not have to

be the main focus of one’s teaching, but it does prove to be an aid, whether used for activities,

homework, assessments or for a teacher to create their lesson plans.

 As a future educator I have my own method of teaching that I believe will allow students

to do well in math. When the school year begins, it is best to get to know your students. This can

be done with a simple exercise where each student tells the class three things about themselves.

This creates a relationship between the student and teacher. To be able to get to grasp the

attention of your students, it is best for there to be more than just an instructor-student

relationship. When getting to know your student, it is best to find out which style of learning

works out best for a student. Some students work best when taking notes, other work best

working in pairs, and others like to work with visuals. A teacher must consider all types of

learning styles in order to create lesson plans. By creating lesson plans centered towards one

specific learning type, you tend to lose the concentration of the other students. I believe the best

way to teach in a Math classroom is to begin with a “Do Now”, where one can start a warm up

activity that allows students to get their brain ready for the lesson. When students commence

their day with math, it takes time for their brain to get ready for the activities so early in the day.

Whereas when students have math for their last period, they are at the point of exhaustion from

all their courses they do not want to continue learning. For this, we begin with a warm up that

allows students to get in their “math mode” where they can have time to prepare their mind for

the lesson. The warm-up will lead into a class discussion where the teacher must have students

discuss their answers and how they came about their results. This should be no longer than 5

minutes as this is just the commencement of the lesson. From here, the teacher will lecture to the

class the topic of the day. The teacher may even give an example on the topic and give the

students a step-by-step example in order for students to see how the problem is done. This will

give students a base to follow for when they work on their own. Then, the teacher should leave

students to their selves where they can work in groups or partners. When students get a chance to
work with their peers, it allows them to see the process of thinking of their classmates, but also

ask questions that they would be too timid to ask the teacher. Students feel more open to

speaking to those who are learning with them. The teacher should then commence group

discussion as well to talk about the results and have students voluntarily explain how they came

about the answers. The teacher will attempt their best to provide visuals in order for students to

not only see the math work computationally, but also see why and how a problem is done. By the

visuals, the problems, and the working it groups, the needs of each student should be able to be

met. Another method that I believe helps is the ability to incorporate visuals, practice problems

and have the students work interactively is by using technology. There are many websites that

are online that can be aid in teaching a lesson. Websites that provide games or assignments can

be given on websites such as Google Classroom. Technology has proven to be a great help to

teachers and shows that students benefit from using technology as one can use it anywhere. I

would make sure at least one class session a week would be spent on using technology in order

for students to get practice in the classroom and then use it at home to complete unfinished work.

When a teacher incorporates technology in their lesson plan, it provides another learning method

for students that incorporates the different learning strategies that each student may have. It

would be a mistake for a teacher to not at least attempt the use of technology to see how it could

benefit the students. I believe that using technology and also using a lecture style that requires

student interaction is the best method for teaching math in a classroom.