Gorse, C; Dickinson, I; Walker, C; Whitehead, P and Shepherd, T (2009) Virtual maths: Contextualised learning with new and emerging technologies. In: Dainty, A R J (ed.) Proceedings of 25th Annual ARCOM Conference, 7-9 September 2009, Nottingham, UK.
Abstract
The teaching and learning of mathematics continues to be a problem in schools and one which threatens to affect the construction industry. Leading industrialists have noted that if such problems are not addressed during formative years they will emerge and affect the construction industry in the future. To improve learning, government ministers have advocated a need to develop open, universally accessible educational resources that are engaging and stimulating. The intention of the Virtual Maths project was to provide exemplars of interactive web based maths problems and, through an action research methodology, identify the degree that children are interested and engaged in learning through such media. Maths was applied to the real life construction context using Flash technology. Workshops were set up in schools, and students and teachers explored and worked through the tasks, after which feedback was sought. An evaluation of the tools was provided by a maths consultant. Teachers, practitioners and student groups provided suggestions on the maths tools and identified possible ways of improving them. The findings show that maths, set in a real world context, was more interesting and meaningful than unapplied maths.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | mathematics; teaching and learning; virtual reality; interactive environments |
| Index terms: | construction industry, practitioner, media, virtual reality, methodology, emerging technology, children, workshop, action research |
| Subjects: | construction type, data collection methods, virtual reality, practitioner, innovation and technology management, research methods, demography, sociology, industry analysis |
| Topics: | Urban Studies, Digital Applications, Research Practice, Construction Technology, Roles and Professions |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here