The role of the graphic calculator as a mediating sign in the zones of proximal development of students studying a first-year university mathematical course

Abstract

This study explores ways in which first-year mathematics students use calculator as a tool of semiotic mediation. Twenty students out of a class of one hundred were loaned a graphic calculator for the academic year and were encouraged to use these during support tutorials. at year-end seven students (four with graphic calculator, three without) were audio-taped while solving a mathematical problem aloud in an interview situation. Also statistical data comparing graphic calculator and non-graphic calculator students' performance on a set of five questions was collected.

The qualitative analysis of the interview data suggests that the calculator functioned primarily as a tool which amplified the zones of proximal development of the students, increasing efficiency and speed, rather than a semiotic which had been internalised. The quantitative analysis of the statistical data failed to support this notion of amplification. It is suggested that the add-on status of the graphic calculator undermined the possibility for statistical significance on this amplification effect.