The Influence Of Using A Digital Mathematics Textbook On Mathematics Teaching And Learning

Over the past ten or so years,more and more attention has been paid to the design and development of digital textbooks and research on using digital textbooks to teach and learn in classrooms at home and abroad.China has issued a series of policies to support education informatization,but domestic research on digital textbooks mostly stays at the theoretical level,there is little empirical research on the influence of using digital mathematics textbooks on mathematics teaching and learning in secondary classrooms.This study aims to investigate the influence of using digital mathematics textbooks on mathematics teaching and learning in secondary classrooms,focusing on answering the following two research questions:(1)What influence will using the digital mathematics textbook have on the teachers’ teaching behaviors and students’ learning behaviors in mathematics classrooms?(2)How do students perceive the use of the digital mathematics textbook for mathematics teaching and learning in mathematics classrooms?This study is an empirical study,relying on a digital mathematics textbook developed by Asian Centre for Mathematics Education,East China Normal University based on junior secondary school mathematics textbooks published by Zhejiang Education Publishing House following the national mathematics curriculum standards for compulsory education.A nearly three-week classroom teaching and learning study was carried out in a junior secondary school in a city in an eastern province.A junior secondary school mathematics teacher and his two ninth grade classes with a total of85 students participated in the study,and the mathematics lessons covered in the study include a chapter of "Similar Triangles" and a review lesson of "Quadratic Function".The study used a combination of classroom observation,questionnaire survey,and interview research methods to collect research data.In response to the above research questions,this study constructs a conceptual framework for analyzing the influence of the digital mathematics textbook on mathematics teaching and learning in junior secondary classrooms based on literature review and social activity theory.The study analyzes the influence of the digital mathematics textbook on the behaviors of teaching and learning from three perspectives including the characteristics of the contents and functions used by mathematics teachers and students as well as classroom discourse characteristics while they are using the digital mathematics textbook in mathematics classrooms.Additionally,the study examines students’ perceptions of using the digital mathematics textbook for mathematics teaching and learning in mathematics classrooms from the following aspects: the impact of the digital mathematics textbook on students’ mathematics learning achievement,the technical availability of the digital mathematics textbook,the learning availability of the digital mathematics textbook,the tendency to use the digital textbook in mathematics classrooms,and future learning expectations about using digital mathematics textbooks.Results show that the digital mathematics textbook can be appropriately applied to and facilitate mathematics teaching and learning in secondary mathematics classrooms.Among them,regarding the use of contents and functions of the digital mathematics textbook,the teacher and students mostly use the examples,exercises and introduction situations provided by the digital mathematics textbook,and supplementing and modifying examples and exercises by the teacher are also common ways to conduct teaching and learning activities with examples and exercises.In addition,using the dynamic geometry files supplemented by the teacher is an important way for the teacher and students to carry out exploring and proving conjectures activities.As can be seen from the results of classroom discourse analysis,teachers still dominate the classroom,but the difference is that the introduction of the digital mathematics textbook provides more time for students to collaboratively explore conjectures through the dynamic geometry software.Results also show that the use of the digital mathematics textbook can help improve students’ mathematics learning achievement,especially in mathematics learning interest.Moreover,students have a positive attitude towards the use of the digital mathematics textbook for mathematics teaching and learning in mathematics classrooms,and at the same time have some concerns about using digital mathematics textbooks to replace printed mathematics textbooks in the future which merit further attention from researchers,textbook developers and teachers.The conceptual framework for analyzing the influence of using a digital mathematics textbook on mathematics teaching and learning in junior secondary mathematics classrooms constructed in this study is innovative and provides a new perspective for the research on the use of digital mathematics textbooks.In addition,this study describes the process of using the digital mathematics textbook in the teaching and learning of geometry and function in junior secondary mathematics classrooms,and provides related suggestions for the use of digital mathematics textbooks for mathematics teaching and learning in mathematics classrooms and design and development of digital mathematics textbooks.