Plenary session (Branca Silveira)
Teacher training: the role of technology
Branca Silveira, Escola Superior de Biotecnologia - UCP
Porto, Portugal
We can't have a change in our schools without teachers and teachers don't change if they are not convinced that the change is going to improve something.
The world is changing, society is changing, pupils are changing, and the schools? How are schools coping with this?
Technology is everywhere. No discussion about that. Everyday appears new software, new computers, new calculators, etc. Are the schools ready for this? Does technology play a significant role in the change of the curriculum?
How do teachers face this? Are they prepared to use technology effectively? Which kind of difficulties do teachers face? Some teachers have been using technology; did they really changed their methodologies or are they using them in a inadequate environment? What about teacher training? Which kind of training is more effective? Initial training? In service training?
But, what should we do for making teachers include technology in their practice? More computers? More training? A different schedule for the classroom? Making the use of technology compulsory? In Portugal the use of graphic calculators is compulsory in secondary schools, so, everybody has to use them. Should we do the same with computers and other technology? What about Internet? How should we train teachers for the use of Internet in the classroom? How can teachers develop the ability to analyse and integrate in an intelligent way, in their teaching the technological developments to come (software, hardware, communication...)?
Those are some of the questions we are going to discuss in this talk, based on the Portuguese experience, focusing my point of view as a teacher, as a teacher trainer and as a member of the board of directors of APM (the Portuguese "Association of Teachers of Mathematics").
Back to strand 3
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The Fifth International
Conference on Technology
in Mathematics Teaching
