Teaching the sketching of quadratic functions online : a case of a rural school in Mopani District, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

This study presents an exploration of the integration of technology, pedagogy, content knowledge and learners’ mathematical competencies when sketching quadratic functions online. The outbreak of COVID-19 became stressful to the education system, and this motivated me to conduct this study. The situation was dire in rural schools because there were no technological means implemented by the government to assist in curriculum coverage. The study was approached qualitatively guided by the following research question: 1) What are the learners’ competencies in sketching quadratic functions online? 2) How to teach the sketching of quadratic functions online using the GeoGebra software? Participants in the study were eight Grade 11 learners doing Mathematics. The school had ten learners doing Mathematics, one did not show interest and the other one decided to stop attending online lessons. Data were generated using five video lesson recordings that included learners’ responses to lesson activities and individual semi structured interviews that consist of nine questions, and I analysed data using thematic analysis. Themes that emerged from the theoretical framework guided the analysis. The main findings of the study revealed that the educator’s technological knowledge is the basic requirement in integrating technology, pedagogical and content knowledge in conducting online lessons. In this study, I used GeoGebra to sketch quadratic functions because it is user friendly and has a free version available. The study revealed that sketching quadratic functions using the GeoGebra software saved time and assisted learners to visualise quadratic functions quickly, accurately, efficiently, and thus enabling comprehension. Learners’ understanding of sketching quadratic functions was improved using the GeoGebra software. Thinking mathematically, representing mathematical entities, handling mathematical symbols and formulas, communicating in, with and about Mathematics and making use of aids and tools were the mathematical competencies derived mostly from different questions of the activities. However, it was also revealed that online lessons can have negative impact on the effective teaching and learning when conducted in a poor network connectivity site. In this study, teaching sketching of quadratic functions online resulted in many challenges. Firstly, due to poor technology infrastructure, there were limited technological devices available for smooth running of online lessons. Secondly, lack of technological knowledge to integrate with other knowledge by the participants affected teaching and learning online poorly. Lastly, poor network connectivity and power cut by Eskom were consistently experienced and affected the online lessons negatively.