Using Graphing Calculators to enhance Teaching and Learning for High School Mathematics
EVENT SHARED FROM : TAIWAN
PUBLISHING MONTH : November 2017
Mrs. Kee Hwee Sin
Mrs. Kee Hwee Sin was a Ministry of Education (MOE) scholar and graduated from Nanyang Technological University, National Institute of Education (NTU/NIE) with a 2nd upper Honors degree major in Mathematics with Diploma in Education in 1998. In the past 20 years in the educational arena, she taught in A level Institutions for many years before leaving MOE in 2014 and continued her passion in teaching as private tutor and trainer for Casio Graphing Calculators. Being a strong advocate for Casio calculators, she collaborated with Casio Singapore and conducted 5 runs of A-level crash courses. Mrs. Kee has a strong interest in supporting all learners in their educational journey and has obtained Certificate in Dyslcalculia and Numeracy Teaching, and Certificate in Supporting SpLD Learners in Further Education/Higher Education.
In Taiwan, use of calculator in class is currently not allowed in both junior high school and senior high school. However, a new mathematics syllabus for high school which may allow teachers to incorporate the use of calculator in the teaching and learning of mathematics is in the pipeline. Hence, Casio Taiwan collaborated with Taiwan Association for Mathematics Education and invited Mrs. Kee Hwee Sin from Singapore to conduct a workshop on teaching mathematics using Casio’s fx-CG50 graphing calculator. Seperate sessions were held in National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) and National Changhua University of Education (NCUE). These two Universities strive to improve the quality of teaching skills of high school teachers. Over a hundred participants attended the sessions, and they are mainly teachers from junior high schools and senior high schools, together with professors from NTNU and NCUE.
Mrs. Kee shared her teaching experience in using Casio’s graphing calculators with Taiwanese teachers. She shared teaching tips and learning resources, introduced interesting features that can be used in math courses, and demonstrated how lessons may be crafted in order to enhance teaching and learning of selected Mathematical concepts. Mrs. Kee also led the participants to explore Taiwan’s and Singapore’s past years examinaion questions, and discussed how the graphing calculator can be used to help students in their understanding of various concepts. This allowed Taiwanese teachers to realize how the functions of Casio fx-CG50 graphing calculator can help students with their learning as well as make the math courses become more engaging.
Taiwanese teachers were impressed that Casio’s graphing calculators are not only very useful in promoting graphical understanding linking to various mathematical concepts, it is also effective in simplifying complicated algorithmic processes. Significant number of teachers responded that the most impressive feature of Casio fx-CG50 graphing calculator is how it can easily show the dynamic graphs, which in turn, help students to better memorize the features of a mathematical function. They agreed that the hardware design and the ease of operating Casio’s graphing calculator makes it a suitable tool for learning mathematics. In other words, most of the teachers agree that Casio fx-CG50 graphing calculator is an excellent tool for students to explore mathematical concepts and develop their interest in math.
As an introductory workshop on the importance of incorporating technology into mathematics education, Mrs Kee has successfully delivered to all participants on how teaching and learning of Mathematical concepts can be enhanced using Casio’s graphing calculator.
