The Effect of Mathematics Instruction through Computer Algebra Systems on the Academic Achievements of Secondary Education Students: Turkey Example

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of the mathematics teaching, which is carried out by mathematics teachers through computer algebra systems, on the achievement of students. A hundred and forty five 10th grade students have taken part in the study as participants. In the research where quantitative research methods were used, quasi-experimental design was used. In the study, class implementations were carried out by three mathematics teachers who had in-service training about the integration of the computer algebra systems to the learning-teaching environments beforehand. In the implementations at issue, teachers carried out computer-assisted instructions about parabola through Mathematical software in experimental groups. In control groups, they carried out the lessons by using information and communication technologies at a baseline level using traditional teaching method. In the research, students' mathematics report grades and also parabola achievement tests, which were used as the pretest and the posttest, were used as data collection tool. The data obtained from the research were analyzed through Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxon signed ranks tests. Besides, the effect size of the obtained data was calculated. As a result of the research, it was seen that the achievement of the experimental group, whose lessons were carried out with computer algebra systems by providing technology integration at transformation level, are higher than the achievement of the control group, whose lessons were carried out with the traditional teaching method by providing technology integration at replacement level. Besides, as the calculated effects size is considered, it is understood that computer algebra systems have a strong effect in the occurrence of the differences between the two groups.