Stimulation of the Development of Inquiry Skills in Teaching Functions

Abstract

Abstract High quality mathematics and science education can induce further acceleration of scientific and technological development of society. Despite the efforts to implement modern approaches to science education, reducing the level of students’ knowledge and skills is observable in some areas. The skills focused on the interpretation of data from tables and graphs and the ability to apply functions to solve problems were an important area for testing mathematical literacy in The OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (OECD PISA) 2012. Lack of skills in the use of different mathematical functions causes problems in mathematical modelling of real situations. Our research is currently aimed at developing inquiry skills of students in mathematics and diagnosing the level of their development. Inquiry based science education (IBSE) could bring improving conceptual understanding of mathematical knowledge and could increase the activity of students in learning. In the paper, we present our first experience with testing the level of development of selected students’ inquiry skills. We focus on the evaluation of tasks requiring working with different representations of data and understanding of linear functions. The paper presents also interactive learning activities that are part of our innovative methods based on applying inquiry approach to teaching linear and quadratic functions. The interactive learning activities for the investigation of the properties of functions are implemented in the dynamic geometric system Geogebra and in the spreadsheet MS Excel.