Instrumental Genesis Methodology

Research Question:

How do individual students’ instrumental genesis influence their use of and perceptions of a specific technology-based learning aid (to be determined) in my mathematics classroom?

Participants:

All students in one of my classes in which a specific technological aid is heavily integrated will be observed and invited to focus groups. In particular, four students will be (purposively) selected by me and my cooperating teacher. These students will be individually interviewed and specifically observed, and case studies will be developed.

Measures:

Observations – The classroom in general and the four selected students specifically will be observed using and demonstrating (i.e. presenting) use of the technology aid. Particular attention will be paid to their work methods (i.e. see Guin and Trouche 2002 for different profiles), as well as any direct evidence of student perceptions (such as comments on usefulness, exacerbation, etc.)

Interviews – The four case study students will be interviewed individually. In the interviews, the students will be asked about their perceptions of the technology aid and it’s utility. The students will also be given a novel problem, and asked to use familiar techniques with the technological aid in an unknown situation. This will help further identify and address the individual aspects of the student’s instrumental genesis.

Artifacts – The work that each of the four students provides in the interview will be included in a portfolio of various works collected throughout the study from these four. These works will be selected on the basis of demonstrating idiosyncratic characteristics of the individual student’s understanding or use of the technology aid, both positive and negative (in order to develop as full of a picture as possible)

Focus groups – The students in the class will be invited to one (or multiple) focus groups. In these, the focus will be on the students’ perceptions about the technology aid, with leading questions used to keep the students discussing the aid more qualitatively, how they “feel” about the aid and using it in the class.

Analysis:

Based on the data collected on the class as a whole, the class observations and focus group meeting(s), the first goal will be to develop a framework for analyzing the factors that contribute to individual student’s perceptions of and uses of the technology aid and instrumental genesis. Then, using the data on the four individual students, four case studies will be developed. The four case students will be selected to hopefully display a wide variety in individual instrumental genesis. They will use the student work artifacts, especially what is collected during individual interviews, to highlight the specific aspects of their instrumentation and instrumentalization.