Contemporary Issues on using Information Technology for Mathematically Gifted Students Zaleha Ismail/Associate Professor Faculty of Education University of Technology Malaysia Johor Bahru, Malaysia
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Shiau Wei, Chan/Ph.D. Faculty of Education University of Technology Malaysia Johor Bahru, Malaysia
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Abstract— The purpose of this paper is to discuss current issues related to information technology usage for mathematically gifted students. The development of information technology in gifted education is examined. In addition, the problems and challenges on using information technology for mathematically gifted students are determined in this paper.
hardware such as calculators can be used in computations, while software programmes such as computer programming and dynamic geometry software can increase problem solving skills, creativity and reasoning. The World Wide Web, which contains a bulk of information, learning resources, and others, allows the users to learn asynchronously or synchronously. According to [10], computer usage can provide a myriad of opportunities for mathematically gifted students to progress at their own rate. It also enables students to engage themselves in solving novelty, challenging and interesting mathematical problems.
Keywords-information technology, mathematically gifted
I. INTRODUCTION Studies indicate that mathematically gifted students are always neglected in the mixed ability or regular classrooms [1][2]. In fact, they can learn better and faster as compared to their same-age peer, but the curriculum and learning materials are not appropriate for them as they are aimed at average students within the grade level. As a result, the mathematically gifted students feel bored and lose their interest when they are required to work at the same pace as their peers, and when they are required to solve simple, unchallenging and impoverished mathematical problems. In addition, most schools emphasize on rote learning, drill and practice, as well as repetitions in the classrooms [1]. Such situation will definitely discourage them from studying [3], and subsequently leads them to underachievement. Therefore, government should give consideration to the plight of mathematically gifted students by enriching and modifying the existing mathematics curriculum to tailor it to their specific needs [1]. These days, the advent of rapid information technology has made many changes in our daily life and societies around the world [2][4]. The usage of computers has become essential in many areas and fields. Thus, the curriculum at the schools ought to be developed by integrating information technology in the classrooms in order to prepare the children to become accustomed to the real workplace in the future, particularly for the gifted [5][6][7]. Fundamentally, gifted citizens are needed in the modern society today as they can contribute new and innovative ideas to meet ongoing growth and development, so that they can compete with other developed countries. Technology-based instruction is tremendously crucial for the gifted students [8][9]. According to [9], there are a lot of options to support the needs of gifted students. For example,
II. MATHEMATICALLY GIFTED Mathematically gifted refers to students who possess talent or potential to obtain creative accomplishment in mathematics and strong aspirations for mathematical investigation. Heid [11] asserted that mathematically gifted students are not necessarily generally gifted or high achievers. The mental state of mathematically gifted students including swiftness in reasoning, curtailment of reasoning, flexibility in thinking, the ability to search for the most rigorous solution, makes them feel tireless when doing mathematics, prompts them to deal with the abstract and generalize hastily and broadly, look at problem via mathematical structure, to view the world through mathematical eye. Mathematically gifted students are considered different from their age group in terms of vigor of understanding, interest, and learning [12][13][14]. They have deep understanding of mathematical concepts as they tend to choose the most suitable approach to complete the questions. Moreover, they can also solve mathematical problems much more quickly and accurately [1][3][15]. In general, mathematically gifted students dislike too much repetitions, tedium, and simple tasks that will cause them to give up mathematics. As a result, they need curriculum that matches these characteristics aforementioned. According to [16], mathematically gifted students are determined by several factors, i.e. family background (parental educational levels and occupations, shared family characteristics, home environments, and behaviors of gifted mathematics students), cognitive characteristics
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second generation of educational multimedia, i.e. psychoeducational multimedia technologies (PMTs) and high intellectual and creative educational multimedia technologies (HiCEMTs). Examples of HiCEMTs are Webbased Integrated Science Environment (WISE), and Knowledge Forum. Web-based Integrated Science Environment (WISE) is a powerful tool that allows students to investigate real-world application and explore present scientific controversies. Knowledge Forum, which is the second generation of Computer-supported Intentional Learning Environments (CSILE) can foster students’ knowledge building and conceptual understanding. To date, various programmes have been implemented for mathematically gifted students that use technology [7][10][20][23]. For instance, The Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) at the Johns Hopkins University showed the positive impact of fast-paced classes in mathematics. Besides, Renzulli Learning System (RLS) is another effective programme for gifted students which had expanded the pedagogy of Schoolwide Enrichment Model [7]. Moreover, a unique programme, The Comprehensive School Mathematics Program at United States motivates many students to enjoy learning mathematics [23].
(mathematical reasoning, spatial abilities, and problem solving abilities), and affective characteristics (selfperceptions and attitude toward mathematics). Findings pointed out that the parents of mathematically gifted students usually have high educational level. Besides, their problem solving capabilities, mathematical reasoning, and spatial abilities are different from that of their averageability peers. There is only a paucity of research concerning the impact on usage of information technology for mathematical gifted students [9][15][17]. In addition, most of the previous studies were concentrated on general giftedness rather than domain-specific giftedness, notably mathematics subject. Therefore, more researches should be done and conducted in the future. III. DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN GIFTED EDUCATION Gifted students need to be exposed to technological tools including hardware, software and internet in schools [9]. As far as hardware in concerned, students should be able to make use of graphing calculators to perform calculations promptly, explore functions deeply, investigate patterns and support programming ability. Besides, handheld computers should be used by students for data gathering. On the other hand, software programme will allow students to create, classify and present their learning. Also, students’ use computer programming software such as BASIC [18] and Logo programming language [19] will promote and enhance their spatial reasoning. Utilization of simulations and educational games foster students’ problem solving skills [20]. Furthermore, numerous online courses integrate the distance learning on the internet, for instance the use of video conferencing, chat room and, discussion boards [9]. One of the prominent websites is the NRICH website [21]. It was found to have positive impact on students because students acquire a broad appreciation of mathematics subject. Freiman [22] conducted a study of CASMI problem-of-the-week, which is a website that encompasses mathematical problems to be solved by diverse groups of users. Results revealed that this website provides benefits for the gifted students as they can select difficult problems to solve, and thereby can expand their opportunities to challenge themselves. According to [2], there are five types of multimedia products in the first generation of educational multimedia technologies, i.e. learning manuals used in the framework of traditional school or college curricula and higher education, multimedia products focusing on general knowledge in various domains, reference sources, edutainment, and cultural cognition. The first generation educational multimedia simply follows exactly the content of textbooks and learning manuals, thus it cannot fit and satisfy the needs of gifted students. This problem has been overcome in the
IV. PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES ON USING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR MATHEMATICAL GIFTEDNESS In this section, we will discuss problems and challenges on using information technologies for mathematically gifted students in term of individual, educators, schools, and government. A. Individual Information technology is good for nurturing gifted students, but we should consider some possible problems that could occur. According to [6], there are three potential problems that should be addressed. The first issue is the integrity and ethics of using computer. Gifted students easily grasp or excel at computer skills, therefore they may misuse their knowledge to commit crime, for instance duplicating software, steal others’ personal information and hack or destroy other computers. The second issue is that enormous amount of information is available on the internet and some of them can be detrimental to the students, especially pornographic and violent websites. There are also many internet games that can be easily accessed which may cause them to get addicted to the games, which may in turn hinder them from focusing on their school works. The third issue is the plausibility of the information presented on the internet. Some of the information provided may be false or prejudiced. In addition to these three issues, we foresee another serious problem, the loss of interpersonal skills. Students may rely too much on technology to communicate with others, which may cause them to fail to
To educate mathematically gifted students, it could be a long-term investment to carry out the programmes, activities or competitions in school. In reality, most of the schools have inadequate fund to support those functions [15]. Consequently, government should allocate sufficient money to the schools in order to deliver gifted programmes smoothly. Besides, lack of time is another serious constraint for the educators and schools [15]. Administrators and educators need to arrange time to educate the gifted students by executing pull-out programmes, after-school academic programmes, weekend academic programmes, in-class grouping for mathematics, academic competitions and so forth [32]. Not only that, teachers are required to attend training on how to teach mathematically gifted students. Such situation can cause them to work overtime and increase their burden. So, the school administrators ought to have proper planning for this special educational programme which should cover, among others, the costs, the arrangement of timetable and the training for the teachers. Prior to that, each school must establish a screening and evaluating system of its own, which will greatly reduce the possibly of mathematically gifted children being overlooked. Moreover, information technology has had a great impact on gifted students. As such, adoption of information technology in the mathematically gifted programmes should be taken into consideration.
understand how to interact with people when they meet face-to-face. Hence, the parents and educators ought to be concerned about the aforementioned issues on using computers, especially on issues concerning the internet access. As far as moral issues are concerned, the onus is on the parents to supervise and to guide their children on the proper ways of using computers, as well as to instill good moral values. B. Educators Some of the educators feel overwhelmed and develop a phobia on the possibility of exploitation of computers in teaching and learning because they are not familiar with the computer functions and their advantages. In addition, they are not given enough training or courses to teach students on how to use computers [24]. To support the mathematically gifted students, teachers should be well-prepared and equipped with sufficient computer knowledge and information system before utilizing computer to educate the gifted students. Likewise, they ought to have the ability to recognize mathematically gifted students [25], troubles faced by the students [26], efficient approaches in teaching students [27]. Information technology can be used to develop traditional method of teaching and learning, but it cannot simply replace the presence of educators. Both methods ought to be conducted simultaneously to achieve better performance. Educators play an important role as facilitator and scaffolder in the process of learning as well. Most of the mathematically gifted students have mastered the basic skills in mathematics, so educators are supposed to differentiate their instruction to best meet the needs of gifted students [1][28][29], for instance creating a virtual learning environment [30]. Educators can prepare challenging tasks to be solved by the mathematically gifted students, as suggested by [15]. It is claimed that there are four types of academic tasks that have the potential to enhance their learning process, namely, challenging tasks that allow usage of metacognitive skills and offer scope for learning, tasks that bring in mathematical ideas beyond their age group level, open-ended investigatory tasks, and tasks that suit their interest. In the gifted programmes, educators ought to provide effective learning environment for the mathematically gifted students in the classroom. They should guide students on how to employ investigations skills when solving the designated tasks. Furthermore, educators can accommodate to the students’ preference for working individually or working collaboratively in a group [31]. By doing so, they can ensure that the students can get to work at their own pace and deal with the tasks.
D. Government At present, plagiarism is an inevitable problem that occurs rampantly all over the world. Many schools do not have enough finances to buy original and expensive commercial software such as Geometer’s Sketchpad and Graphing Calculator for mathematics, hence the proliferation of pirated editions of software. As far as this matter is concerned, government should encourage people to use open source software which is distributed free of charge for everyone, for instance GNU/Linux, and GeoGebra. Open source software is available with complete source code that the user can exploit and modify or add a feature to improve it [33][34]. By using open source software, the problem of software piracy could be curbed gradually. To achieve, this government should introduce stringent measures and impose heavier penalties on the perpetrators. On the other hand, curriculum developers and policy makers ought to re-examine the curriculum and education system. Educating the mathematically gifted students should be taken into account in the curriculum, so that they are not abandoned in the regular classroom. VanTassel-Baska and Stambaugh [9] viewed the curriculum for the gifted as development of cognitive process, technology, personal relevance, social reconstruction, academic rationalism, and precursor to a professional career. There are three
C. Schools
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curriculum dimensions for the gifted, that is content, process and product, and epistemology. Curriculum developers can refer to these dimensions to get clear direction when designing and planning the curriculum.
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V. CONCLUSION To sum up, utilization of information technology has its positive and negative aspects. It is really a big challenge for educators, schools and government to cater for mathematically gifted students using information technology as innumerable problems and shortfalls exist. As such, it is our duty to shoulder the responsibility and to overcome these constraints. In fact, proper use of information technology in educating the mathematically gifted students can be a real advantage, not only for the students’ self-improvement, also for the development of society and nation as a whole. As shown by previous studies, information technology has paramount importance in the teaching and the learning process of mathematically gifted students, and its impacts and advantages are irrefutable. Therefore, it is indeed viable to adopt information technology in educating the gifted, be it in the present or in the future.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work was funded by Research Management Centre, University of Technology Malaysia.
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