Spatial skills, confidence, gender and graphing calculator use in the high school precalculus classroom
Doenges, Karen GView Profile. The Ohio State University, ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing, 1996. 9639228.
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This study examined relationships between gender, spatial skills, achievement, confidence and attitudes toward graphing calculator use in precalculus classrooms.
The subjects for this study were 134 students--69 males and 65 females--from 6 classrooms in 4 Midwestern high schools where graphing calculators are required.
Students were tested for confidence-without-graphing-calculator, confidence-with-graphing-calculator, spatial and visualization skills. Confidence instruments were researcher-developed, Likert-type scales with algebraic and graphical subscales. ETS Card Rotations Test and Paper Folding Test tested spatial and visualization skills. Mathematical achievement was the grade from the last mathematics class. Interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 25 students.
T-tests examined differences between confidence-with-calculator and confidence-without-calculator scores, and algebraic and graphical subscales. ANOVA was used to check for possible gender or teacher differences. Pearson's r examined relationships between confidence-with-calculator and spatial skills and confidence-with-calculator and visualization. Spearman's $
ho$ was used for relationships between achievement and confidence-with-calculator. Gender and teacher effects were also examined.
Confidence-with-calculator scores were significantly higher than confidence-without-calculator (p $