Faculty of Education

Assessment Task Cover Sheet

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Unit Co-ord./Lecturer Dr. Janet Dyment

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Student ID 077457
Student Name Ben Hendriks
Unit Code EMT698
Unit Name Curriculum Inquiry and Scholarship
Assessment Task
AT1: Starting your teacher inquiry journey
Title/Number

Word Count Part one: 494 + Part two: 509 + Part three: 23 = 1026
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EMT698 Curriculum Inquiry and Scholarship

Ben Hendriks

Assessment # 1

Please note when reading that part one is written in first person and part two is
written in third person. This choice is deliberate in line with the requirements of the
assessment task.
Part one: Generating a source in inquiry
In any given mathematics classroom the one thing that can be practically
guaranteed is that someone sitting somewhere is suffering from boredom. Engagement
within the field of mathematics must be one of the most consistent battles for any
teacher of the field, which is only heightened by the increasing other external stimuli
available to students.
When starting a placement in a college mathematics foundation class,
predominately filled with year 11 students, I ask if many of them have a smartphone or
similar device which can access the internet. My agenda behind asking this question is
to gather data, so to speak, in order to plan for my next lesson, which follows my first
day of the expected lets follow the textbook lessons, which engaged students with a
predictable lack of success. I was somewhat surprised when each and every student in
the class had a device with the ability to access the internet. I had been told that the class
had occasionally used clickers (technology which allows a PowerPoint presentation to
become an interactive quiz) but I decided to introduce them to an online quiz website:
Kahoot! My rationale behind introducing Kahoot rather than sticking with the usual
clickers was that I would take their devices, which they normally use sneakily and get in
trouble for doing so, and turn the interaction into a positive educational experience.
Kahoot is a downloadable app or accessible website which allows the user (or
teacher) to select a quiz for a group (or class) to participate in. By accessing the website

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EMT698 Curriculum Inquiry and Scholarship

Ben Hendriks

Assessment # 1

and entering the game pin students can fill in a nickname of their choosing, remaining
anonymous if they wish, and race the clock to answer the questions correctly. Points are
given for correct answers depending on how quickly the students have answered them. I
had not expected much reaction from the students when introducing Kahoot, however
students were actually cheering when they knew what P stood for in the simple interest
formula, something which would be hard to do with traditional teaching methods. I saw
that I could effectively break up an hour and a half lesson with the use of Kahoot and
have since experimented with using Kahoot as a tuning in exercise first thing on a
Monday morning (I would not recommend that).
Initially I was happy to use Kahoot as a tool to break-up the lesson however I
saw a larger potential when a bright student told me that after being introduced to
Kahoot in our maths lessons, she used it as a presentation tool for another of her
subjects. This sparked my wondering in relation to the passion of teaching strategies and
techniques, defined by Fichtman Dana and Yendol-Hoppey (2014), about the
effectiveness of using Kahoot, as not only a way to engage mathematics students, but as
a tool of formative and even summative assessment. The crux of this wondering boils
down to whether using Kahoot improves attitudes towards and performance in
mathematics.
Part two: Initial report on the literature
After searching the literature on using interactive apps in a mathematics
classroom two things stood out:

The research is only very recent

The studies focus mainly on early childhood students

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EMT698 Curriculum Inquiry and Scholarship

Ben Hendriks

Assessment # 1

Of the five articles selected for this initial report, three of those are studies on
measuring students performances in mathematics where the use of interactive apps are
present. Two of these three articles analysed the test results of young students before
using the math apps and after using the math apps (Zhang, Trussell, Gallegos, & Asam,
2015) and (Moyer-Packenham et al., 2015). Zhang et al. (2015) found that the use of
interactive math apps reduced the achievement gaps on paper and pencil tests between
students they determined to be struggling compared to those they deemed typical.
Zhang et al. (2015) recommended that apps could be improved by including game
features such as a points or rewards systems. Moyer-Packenham et al. (2015) found that
early childhood students interacted with apps differently and improved different aspects
of their mathematical skills depending on which grade they were in.
A criticism which could be made about both of these studies was that there was
not a control group in either case. It is all very well to state that the results of the
students improved from one test to the next where interactive apps were administered,
however, it may be that students would improve using traditional methods alone. Both
these studies concur that more research into the use of apps in the classroom is
necessary.
Kim, Chacko, Zhao and Montclare (2014) provided a study on the results of two
all-girl year 10 chemistry classes, one of which (the experimental group) used iPad apps
and blogs and one were taught traditionally (the control group). The study found that the
students who used the apps most frequently gained higher and more consistent results
than the control group, however, on close inspection the authors use the average grades
of the five most frequent bloggers and compared them with the average results of the
control group. Using these statistics brings the validity of the papers results into

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EMT698 Curriculum Inquiry and Scholarship

Ben Hendriks

Assessment # 1

question as it is not clear as to whether the students who engaged with the apps would
normally outperform their peers with or without the technology available.
The final two papers selected for this report focus more on the selection of apps
and the teaching strategies to make best use of such apps. Powell (2014) highlights the
difficulty in sifting through the myriad of apps currently available on interactive devices
to find one that both is suitable for the students and aligns with the curriculum. Wiliam
(2014) stresses the importance of teachers asking the right questions in an engaging way
to hook students, but also to gain information on their current level of understanding.
Wiliam (2014) advocates the use of all-student-response systems to answer multiple
choice questions to achieve this.
Kahoot achieves many of the app criteria recommended by the papers listed
above. Teachers can create customised quizzes for specific classes or groups which
show a tally of the responses and keeps a score to hold students interest.
Part three: Identifying inquiry question
Do interactive apps (such as Kahoot) improve engagement and hence
performance in secondary mathematics classrooms compared to the use of traditional
methods alone?
References
Fichtman Dana, N., & Yendol-Hoppey, D., (2014). The reflective educators guide to
classroom research (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Kim, H., Chacko, P., Zhao, J., & Montclare, J. K. (2014). Using touch-screen
technology, apps, and blogs to engage and sustain high school students' interest
in chemistry topics. Journal of Chemical Education, 91(11), 1818-1822.
Retrieved from

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EMT698 Curriculum Inquiry and Scholarship

Ben Hendriks

Assessment # 1

http://ezproxy.utas.edu.au/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/165186
2996?accountid=14245
Moyer-Packenham, P.S., Shumway, J.F., Bullock, E., Tucker, S.I., Anderson-Pence,
K.L., Westenskow, A., & Jordan, K. (2015). Young Childrens Learning
Performance and Efficiency when Using Virtual Manipulative Mathematics iPad
Apps. Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching, 34(1), 41-69.
Chesapeake, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education
(AACE).
Powell, S. (2014). Choosing iPad apps with a purpose: Aligning skills and standards.
Teaching Exceptional Children, 47(1), 20-26. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.utas.edu.au/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/156025
8319?accountid=14245
Wiliam, D. (2014). The right questions, the right way. Using Assessments Thoughtfully,
71(6), 16-19. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educationalleadership/mar14/vol71/num06/The-Right-Questions,-The-Right-Way.aspx
Zhang, M., Trussell, R. P., Gallegos, B., & Asam, R. R. (2015). Using math apps for
improving student learning: An exploratory study in an inclusive fourth grade
classroom. TechTrends: Linking Research and Practice to Improve
Learning, 59(2), 32-39. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.utas.edu.au/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/169748
9901?accountid=14245

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