eJMT Abstract

This article describes how the use of dynamic geometry software has helped preservice teachers develop their abilities in three aspects: 1) challenging problem solving; 2) mathematical modeling; and 3) constructing student-centered teaching projects. The examples given indicate that for some of the challenging problems that are presented to students, it is almost impossible or very hard to manually make correct drawings. To overcome this difficulty, the use of dynamic geometry software seems to be critical, or at least very desirable. In addition, the use of the software can stimulate students’ insight of problem solving and provide an easy and convincing way of verifying the solution. Moreover, students can construct accurate visual representations to model real world situations very efficiently by using transformations in dynamic geometry software. This can save time significantly so that students can concentrate on more conceptual oriented tasks. Good teaching projects that take advantage of dynamic geometry software can also effectively enhance school children’s mathematics learning. The supplemental materials that accompany this paper can be found online at the following URL: http://www.radford/~scorwin/eJMT/Content/Paper/jiang