Evaluation of the learning of the students of vocational high schools in computer assisted environment about the concept of "limit and continuity" by SOLO taxonomy

As a part of our daily lives the purpose of the education is to educate people for learning, thinking critically, criticizing, creating and adopting new thinkings rather than just rote learning. In this respect, mathematics education aims to help individuals become ready to real life by improving their abstract thinking skills. However, it is difficult to reach this aim through traditional teaching providing rote learning. Throughout the implementation of traditional mathematics teaching at Vocational High Shools (VSH) of our universities does not draw on conceptual mathematics learning and analitical reasoning. This situation causes to ignore conceptual understanding of abstract concepts and yield rote learning at VHSs. In order to solve this problem we need to use effective teaching methods and tools to make, difficult and abstract mathematical concepts such as limit and continuity, easy to learn for VHS students. In the present study, it was aimed to examine learning of VHS students about limit and continuity within an environment supported by BCS software. The structure of observed learning outcomes of the students were evaluated and interpreted by SOLO taxonomy through an action research process. The study was conducted to 32 students enrolled in the program of Computer Technologies in VHS. The data were collected through worksheets completed by students, students' computer screen outputs of Derive, observations, teacher field notes through observations and student talks. In order to find the answers of research problem so SOLO taxonomy were used. The detailed information about each learning outcomes of VHS students were compared with SOLO taxonomy levels. It was observed that the answers of the students evaluated by SOLO taxonomy were lower than the structure related to limit-continuity concept. This means that they could not make connection between their knowledge and skills in a coherent structure. Although the BCS software could not help students to reach the expected learning levels, it could help them about improwing themselves to interpret the general knowledge about limit and continuity. In light of these findings, it can be suggested that the activities encoraging dynamic visualizations such as BCS softwares, representations and oral communication should be benefited from considering the levels of VHS students. In addition, there might be a course about the usage of softwares such as BCS in order to develop abstract thinking skills in high schools before university programs. Keywords: VHS Students, Limit-Continuity Concept, SOLO Taxonomy, Computer Assisted Mathematics Learning.