GeoGebra Institute:2012 Annual Report GI Torino

People

Ornella Robutti (Director, researcher), Ferdinando Arzarello (researcher), Ada Sargenti (teacher educator), Claudia Testa (teacher), Gaetano Di Caprio (teacher educator), Patrizia Laiolo (teacher educator)

Training and Support

The trainers and the ambassadors give courses for teachers (in-service) and support them in teaching experiments at school.

SEMINARS

• 16 January 2012 Ornella Robutti: Competences and key concepts: a challenge for teaching mathematics with technologies
• 23 February 2012 Elisa Gallo and Maria Cantoni: Reasoning in geometry: induction, abduction, and deduction. How technological tools can help us?
• 22 March 2012 Elisa Gallo and Maria Cantoni: How GeoGebra can help in enlarging the space of Euclidean geometry for studying plane curves in a general approach?

TEACHER TRAINING

The Italian GeoGebra Institute of Torino – in collaboration with CE.SE.DI. (Provincia di Torino), La Casa degli Insegnanti, University of Torino (Dipartimento di Matematica) and the Regional Project DI.FI.MA. in rete – organised in 2011-2012 and 2012-13 different level courses in training teachers (of secondary schools) in GeoGebra, with the following aims:

• To introduce teachers who did not know any DGS to GeoGebra, making them aware of the dynamic capabilities of this software
• To analyse the potentiality of interconnected multiple and dynamic representations of GeoGebra in mathematics teaching and learning, with teachers who already knew a DGS;
• To create a community of practice for teachers, in order to design learning activities of Mathematics with GeoGebra adequate to different school levels, and to carry out teaching experiments in the classrooms.

And the following topics:

1. Introduction and basic commands
2. Constructions and Dragging Test
3. Figures and their properties
4. Geometric transformations
5. Functions and their representations
6. Families of functions depending on parameters
7. Models and problem solving

The courses of 2011-12 have involved 60 teachers of 20 different schools (most secondary). Trainers in the courses were the team of GeoGebra Institute, along with 9 teachers more, who were trainees in the courses of 2011, and this year trainers. In this way, the community is enlarging and gaining new people. Teachers involved in the courses obtained the certification of User in GeoGebra, submitted to the frequency, the experimentation of the materials in their classes, and the assessment made by the trainers.

The courses of 2012-13 are involving more than 150 teachers of about 50 different schools (most secondary). The courses are organised in two different groups:

1. Six courses in collaboration with the National Project promoted by the Italian Ministry of Education: Piano Lauree Scientifiche, divided in modules directed to Geometry on one side, and Models on the other side, with the use of GeoGebra. Teachers are engaged in training activities face-to-face and at distance, and teaching experiments in their classes.
2. Four courses of introduction to GeoGebra (with the collaboration of CESEDI), directed to primary and secondary school, and one advanced, directed to teachers who already have the certification of User.

Other activities are spontaneous teaching experiments carried out in single schools or groups of schools.

Research and Collaboration

RESEARCH

1. Mathematics at University level in continuity with secondary level: e-learning with platform and technologies in blended modality (face-to-face and at distance), particularly using GeoGebra.
2. The mathematics teacher as learner in a community, in relation with the institutions on one side and with the research on the other side: a model to interpret teacher education and professional development in its complexity, particularly using GeoGebra.

GEOGEBRA DAY

The 27th of September, 2012 there has been the Second GeoGebra Italian Day, in the Massimo D’Azeglio Lyceum of Torino. The event is organised in the DIFIMA project and its materials are collected in the platform DIFIMA in rete: http://teachingdm.unito.it/porteaperte/

1. Plenaries: Ornella Robutti: GeoGebra Institutes in Italy; Ada Sargenti: Project community of practice with GeoGebra; Tiziana Garattoni: Experiences from schools
2. Workshops and comunications
3. Certification of User to teachers who followed the courses and experienced an activity with GeoGebra in her/his class, under the supervision of a teacher trainer.

RESEARCH-ACTION

Project RSDI (Gruppo Cooperativo di Ricerca Didattica Interdisciplinare of Pinerolo) of the Movimento di Cooperazione Educativa (MCE): teaching education project on mathematics and language with GeoGebra, involving primary school teaches and coordinated by the trainers of GeoGebra Institute.

Publications

O. Robutti (2013). The GeoGebra Institute of Torino, Italy: Research, Teaching Experiments, and Teacher Education. In: P. M. Pumilia-Gnarini, E. Favaron, E. Pacetti
, J. Bishop
 & L. Guerra
 (Eds.) Handbook of Research on Didactic Strategies and Technologies for Education: Incorporating Advancements, Hershey: Information Science Reference, vol. 1, 492-502.

F. Arzarello, F. Ferrara, O. Robutti (2012). Mathematical modelling with technology: the role of dynamic representations. Teaching Mathematics and its Applications, vol. 31, 20-30.

Robutti O., Sargenti A. (2012). GeoGebra Institute of Torino: ricerca, formazione docenti, sperimentazioni. In: M. Mosca & O. Robutti (Eds.) Atti del V Convegno Nazionale di DIdattica della FIsica e della MAtematica. DI.FI.MA. 2011. Il curriculum di matematica e di fisica nella scuola del III millennio: infanzia, primaria, secondaria di primo e secondo grado. Torino, 5-7 ottobre 2011, 441-450, Torino: Kim Williams Books.