Abstract:

In-service teacher training is an essential element in helping to adapt to different curricula and new methods and resources.

The study carried out is part of the national mathematics conference, for mathematics teachers in Portuguese compulsory education. The conference is organized in several parallel sessions and a set of workshops that the participants could select according to their preferences. This study analyzes one workshop whose purpose was to articulate the goals of the mathematics program and essential learning, at basic school, with a collaborative environment provided by the Web Geometry Laboratory (WGL) (Santos, Quaresma, Marić, & Campos, 2018).

This study aims to understand how the use of the WGL platform allowed the development of collaborative work, and to identify what type of self and co-regulation of learning strategies (SCRL) were adopted during the workshop.

The research methodology adopted consists of a case study, relating to a group of teachers who worked together in this workshop. A qualitative approach was adopted through the interpretation of data collected through the report of non-participant observation and interaction in the chat available on WGL. This observation was based on an observation grid related to SCRL based on Zimmerman model (2013) and the ERICA questionnaire by Kaplan, Montalembert, Laurent and Fenouillet (2017). Thus, observation grids for SCRL and a collaborative work observation grid were used. Data collection consisted of making observations and also conducting individual interviews, to triangular data interpretation.

The results of the observation show that in the studied group there is no collaborative work due to lack of practice that hindered the use of the WGL, which led the group to work individually. However, the use of some SCRL strategies is visible, as is the case of seeking help with the teacher and colleagues in the chat.
We can conclude that, although the WGL platform allows collaborative work, it requires prior preparation, essentially with the manipulation of GeoGebra and the platform. Thus, it is recommended that in future training, the creation of strategies and dynamics of preparation for work on the WGL platform (setting up the platform with a longer duration) in order to be able to carry out full collaborative work.

However, it is important to keep in mind that the platform was unknown to most participants and that the sampling is not significant to draw general conclusions. For future work it is considered relevant to increase the sample group and prepare a test before and after the training as a way to verify the learning and what strategies should be adopted in the introduction to the use of dynamic geometry platforms.

References:
[1] Kaplan, J., de Montalembert, M., Laurent, P., & Fenouillet, F. (2017). ERICA – An instrument to measure individual and collective regulation of learning. European Review of Applied Psychology / Revue Européenne de Psychologie Appliquée, 67(2), 79–89.
[2] Santos, V., Quaresma, P., Marić, M., & Campos, H. (2018) Web geometry laboratory: case studies in Portugal and Serbia, Interactive Learning Environments, 26:1, 3-21.
[3] Zimmerman, B. J. (2013) From Cognitive Modeling to Self-Regulation: A Social Cognitive Career Path, Educational Psychologist, 48:3, 135-147.

Keywords:

Self and co-regulation of learning, collaborative learning, in-service teachers.