Effect of graphic calculating machine utilization by high school students in learning trigonometry on their academic achievements and problem solving skills

While the heart of the world is beating with technology, our duty and responsibility as educators, educational institutions and parents is to create a difference in the lives of the students for the rapidly developing and changing world. It is clear that the current problems cannot be solved with a traditional approach. As the people of our developing country, we need to bear the problem solving skills and use the technology at the right time and place in an effective way at especially learning and teaching activities in order to set up communications with our environment and the world and to improve our cognitive abilities.The aim of this research is to determine the effect of the graphic calculating machine (GCM) utilization by secondary school 10th class students in learning trigonometry at mathematics lessons on their academic achievements and problem solving skills.The implementation started at the first week of April during the second school term of 2008-2009 and lasted for nearly five weeks. As the implementation school, a public school in Izmir is determined. In the study conducted with a control group and an experiment group selected from the 10th class students, the trigonometry subjects which take place in the secondary education mathematics learning program are taken up by using GCM in the experiment group and in the control group without using GCM.The pattern of the research is designed as semi-experimental pattern and the final test control group-model is used in the study.In the research, both quantitative and qualitative data are collected. The data gathering instruments used in the research are: problems aimed at measuring the problem solving skills of the students with the ?Academic Achievement Test For Learning Trigonometry? developed by the researcher, the form of student meetings and the form of teacher meetings.The quantitative data obtained during the research are analyzed with encoding according to the categories determined by the researcher via certain data analysis techniques by using SPSS program. The statistical analysis techniques used for the qualitative data analysis are t-test and correlation. Contents analysis is used for the qualitative data analysis obtained from the meetings.It is found out that there is no significant difference (p=0.17) among the academic achievements displayed in learning trigonometry at the mathematics lessons by the experiment and control group students who participated in the research. Furthermore, it is ascertained that the averages of the experiment group students (=15.44) are some higher than the averages of the control group students (=13.05).It is put forth that there is a meaningful difference (p=0.001) among the problem solving skills of the students in the classes where GCM is used and not used. Moreover, the results show that there is no significant difference (p=0.61) according to the gender of the students in the classes which use GCM in learning trigonometry at the mathematics lessons when their problem solving skills are concerned. In the light of the obtained data, there is a positive and meaningful relation (r=0.60) between the total points taken by the experiment group students from their academic achievement scores and measurement-purpose problems.According to the meetings, the benefits of the GCM utilization at mathematics on the learning-teaching process are as follows: It provides permanence of the knowledge, realizes rapid data transfer, helps in solving the problem by enabling cross-checks, ensures the materialization of the concepts in brains with its visuality, gives the opportunity for timesaving, facilitates learning and prevents the abstraction of interest and attention. It is stated that GCM utilization has no negative dimensions in general. It is noted that especially some difficulties are experienced at the first days of GCM utilization, however it is observed that opinions change after the utilization is learned. The meeting results demonstrate that trigonometric function drawing and the formulas of the triangle with the sinus and co sinus theorems are learned in the best way by using GCM in trigonometry. The individuals who attended the meeting declared that they haven?t taken advantage of GCM in understanding the problem among the problem solving levels and they mostly used GCM at the selected strategy implementation and solution evaluation levels. The changes formed by the GCM utilization in learning trigonometry at mathematics lessons in the atmosphere of the classrooms are as follows: It increases the student-student and teacher-student inter-action and the interest in lessons since it is a product of a visual technology, it provides the assistance among the students, it enriches and differentiates the learning/teaching process. Most of the teachers and students said that their academic achievements would increase due to the GCM utilization in learning trigonometry.It is thought that the results which are obtained from the research -the usage of a graphing calculator and the development of problem solving abilities using this technology in mathematics teaching- are going to contribute to the educators in mathematics education field.Keywords: Trigonometry Learning Area, Graphic Calculating Machine, Academic Achievement, Problem Solving Skills