Connecting Math Website
Evaluation to an Authentic Learning
Activity for Teaching Candidates
Dr. Robert G. Ziegenfuss &
Michael F. Smith
Shippensburg University
Purpose of Study and Background
• Purpose of the study
▫ Mathematics teaching candidates aware of technology being used
by & available to school districts.
▫ Teachers called on to close the gaps among students.
 Bring students up in performance.
 Fill the gaps between different subgroups of students.
▫ Computer-based assignments can be a key component for
differentiated instruction for students who need
individualization:
 Give students needing extra practice additional examples.
 Provide students who excel with additional stimuli to reduce boredom
while others “catch up”.
• Research Goals:
▫ Enhance teaching candidates’ experience and awareness of math
websites currently being used in grades kindergarten through grade 8,
using an authentic activity.
▫ Develop critical thinking skills among teaching candidates related to
mathematics website evaluation criteria by summarizing the pros and
cons and rating math websites.
▫ Determine the highest rated mathematics websites across multiple
criteria, as well as disaggregated by specific criteria.
▫ Summarize the pros and cons of each website in data form and
comments.
▫ Develop a pilot study which can be used for training teacher candidates,
as well as collect evaluation data for future math websites and similar
technology, such as apps and iPads.
Method
• Participants: Elementary and middle
level teaching candidates from
Shippensburg University of
Pennsylvania were asked to evaluate
13 websites currently used by school
districts for mathematics instruction,
reinforcement, and enrichment. The
total number of valid (i.e., complete)
evaluations from participants was
1947.
• Materials and Procedures: All
teaching candidates were to evaluate
each of the 13 different mathematics
related websites on 7 criteria:
Descriptive Statistics
Overall Ratings for each Website
Overall Site Evaluation by Gender
Example of Qualitative Analyses
• List of positive, yet rare, evaluations for Figurethis site (referenced p. 16):
▫ “Well organized site. NCTM member site. Very nice family help links for
school, homework available. Good resources for teachers as well.”
▫ “The site was easy to navigate through. I did not find any place for assessments.
It had a link for a Spanish version for the website but not for all ESL. I also did
not find a place for demonstration.”
▫ “Really enjoyed browsing through this website. It was very appealing for
teachers, students, and families.”
▫ “This is one of the best math websites I have ever seen. It has a game board and
then takes you to do different games within the game board. It is completely kid
friendly and fun and has all of the concepts too.”
Example of Qualitative Analyses
• List of negative evaluations for Figurethis site (referenced p. 17):
▫ “This is a site where students can become easily off task because it takes you from site to another.
This is not a site I would recommend or use in my classroom.”
▫ “This site is basically just a spring board to find other sites. While this is nice, I feel as though it
creates more work for the educator who is looking for a one-stop resource that has many different
options.”
▫ “The site is easy to use, you just click the side bar, but it only just lists other sites to use for math,
and even then, there were sites for toys at Target and things. Not going to use with my students.”
▫ “I did not like this website. It was not visually engaging. It was a search engine not an interactive
website. I would not use this or recommend it.”
▫ “This website would be hard for some students not navigate. Many students will take more time
clicking on the different sites then actually working on math.”
▫ “This site had a long list of different websites for mathematics. However, the process of going
through all of these websites to find the one need would take a long time.
▫ “Overall I did not like this website. I did not find it very attractive for students. It does offer the
option to select Spanish as a language, but only Spanish. No real accommodations are made.”
▫ “This website was not easy to navigate and did not cover a lot of content.”
Link to Full Article
• Ziegenfuss, R. G., & Smith, M. (2015 Fall).
Connecting Math Website Evaluation to an
Authentic Learning Activity for Teaching
Candidates. Current Issues in Middle Level
Education, 20(1), 18-28.
▫ http://www.napomle.org/cimle/fall2015/Zi
egenfuss_Smith.pdf