A Critical Review of Using Desmos to Teach Transformation

Author: CHAN WONG SHAN

Instructor: Dr. Yin Bon KU

MAED5511 Course 20506880 11 May 2023

Introduction
In this paper, it aims at criticizing the work of Desmos Lesson for Teaching
Transformation conducted by group-4 students including Chan Wong Shan, Lau Ting
Sum, Li Yu and Xu Xin Dan from MAED5511 course at the Hong Kong University of
Science and Technology on 29 Mar 2023. In this work, group-4 students designed a
Desmos lesson (see Appendix B) on the topic of Transformation of Graphs for form-6
class with 30 students for 60 minutes. The work is divided into four sections, the first
section is for applying basic transformations devised for students to gain the
knowledge of using Desmos and review the basic knowledge about transformations
of graphs. The second section is for a game activity called marble slides devised for
students to develop problem-solving skills and open-mindedness and appreciate
multiple approaches in solving the same problem. The third section is for an art
illustration devised for students to appreciate how transformations of graphs can be
applied in creating artwork. The last section is for challenges devised for students to
stretch their potential by developing their problem-solving skills and creativity. This
article will critique the work of Desmos Lesson for Teaching Transformation based on
TPACK (Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge) model, NCTM (the
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) guidelines and Kovacs’s methodology.

Summary
The Desmos lesson design is based on the SAMR model and Bloom’s Taxonomy to
integrate technology into teaching and learning. Students will participate in the
entire lesson using the Desmos Classroom platform thanks to various designed
Desmos activities, rather than switching from textbooks and worksheets to
computers (Substitution). In contrast to the circumstance where a selected number
of students would be able to express themselves, all students would be given the
opportunity to do so at the beginning and at the end of the class (Augmentation).
Students will be able to visualize the graphs of the algebraic equations they type with
the help of Desmos graphing calculator (Modification). Students will be able to utilize
their creativity to come up with their own questions and attempt to solve the
challenges created by their peers after playing the game activity Marble slides
(Redefinition). Group 4 students claimed that in their work, after this lesson their
students are not only able to consolidate their knowledge about transformations of
graphs by exploring the marble games and develop their open-mindedness to
appreciate multiple approaches in solving the same problems, but also hone their
problem-solving skills through tackling unfamiliar problems and their creativity in
designing their own questions. Thus, in section one they devised simple activities
requiring students to follow given instructions to complete tasks by applying basic
transformations such as movement, reflection and enlargement. For example,
students need to enlarge the graph along the y-axis to two times the original based
on the function 𝑓 ( 𝑥 )=sin ( 𝑥 ). In section two, they devised more difficult activities
requiring students to follow given instructions to complete tasks by applying basic
transformations using two various methods. For example, students need to collect all
the stars based on the function 𝑓 ( 𝑥 )=2 𝑥2. Students are required to figure out the
patterns that 𝑓 ( 𝑥 )=2 ( 𝑥 / 5 )2 and 𝑓 ( 𝑥 )=( 1 / 25 ) ( 2 𝑥 2 ) both have the same transformation
of graph. In section three, they showed an art illustration by using transformations of
graphs to develop students' open-mindedness. For example, a human animation
image drawn based on functions and the concept of transformations demonstrated
how human eyes, head, nose, ears and body are drawn by circle functions and
functions of reflection. In the last section, they provided opportunities for students
to design their own questions and try to solve the problems designed by their peers.
For example, students acted as a teacher in this part to set stars in different positions
for their classmates to collect all of them by applying the concept of transformation
of graphs. These are group-4 students’ main points of their work and corresponding
activities to support their lesson objectives.

Evaluation
To evaluate whether the work of Desmos Lesson for Teaching Transformation is
effective or not in terms of implementing technology into teaching and learning,
TPACK (Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge) model, NCTM (the
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) guidelines and Kovacs’s methodology
will be served as criteria for making sure that the teaching and learning is done
effectively. According to NCTM guidelines, the learning objectives for the lesson must
be determined before setting a lesson plan. Following this, a task that gives the
students chances to meet the goal and participate in reasoning and sense-making to
assist learning when they progress through the tasks must be designed or adjusted. A
lesson's implementation strategy, including student organization, task presentation,
and task time, must be chosen once the task has been selected. After the session,
the teacher should lead a discussion in class about the students' observations and
hypotheses and assist them in making any important connections they may have
missed (NCTM). At present, let us wear NCTM’s hat to look back on group-4 work. By
their teacher guide of Desmos lesson (see Appendix A) submitted on canvas on 29
Mar 2023, they showed their learning objectives and lesson flow in Teacher Moves
on screen four and showed how SAMR model integrate into learning and teaching of
Desmos lesson. The screen four of teacher guide is evidently shown that their lesson
plan of implementing Desmos to teach transformation meet NCTM guidelines. In
other words, the Desmos lesson is regarded as an effective technology-based lesson.
According to TPACK model proposed by Getenet, another checklist on how to
evaluate the application of Desmos into lesson, it shows that teachers are required
to possess a thorough awareness of the connections between technology,
pedagogical and content knowledge once they adopt technology-based lessons
(Getenet, 2018). First, the teacher should use relevant materials in relation to the
lesson being taught, have sufficient knowledge of the subject, have confidence in the
mathematical concepts related to the lesson, and give a clear introduction to the
topic and learning goals. The teacher must then make sure they are familiar with the
pedagogical approaches that work best for instructing the subject matter. That is, the
instructor must be able to combine methods of instruction that inspire creativity
with methods of instruction that give students more control over how they solve
mathematical issues (PCK). Second, the next item on the checklist is to consider how
technology and content interact in effective instruction. The instructor needs to be
aware of how technology can alter the subject matter as knowledge of technology
and mathematics are clearly related (TCK). Last, the use of technology in the
classroom should be designed to encourage learning and introduce essential
concepts in a hands-on way. Hence, teachers need to understand how to employ
technology with various pedagogical strategies (TPK). By using this TPACK model to
examine group-4 work again, we see they have a solid content knowledge about
transformations of graphs as they are able to devise their lesson activities by using
transformations from simple level to hard level. However, they lack a firm grasp of
pedagogies and technology. Even if they employ the SAMR model, there is no proof
that the proper technological aids and pedagogies were employed throughout the
class to ensure that students could effectively benefit from the activities. The last
evaluation method for evaluating online educational materials is Kovacs’ method. To
put it simply, He constructs sixteen quality identifiers from four main principles. The
multimedia principle is the first one. Instead of merely using words, the educational
exercise should incorporate pictures as well. The contiguity principle follows, which
mandates that related words and images be positioned next to one another on the
page. A certain level of simplicity is necessary for the coherence principle. It can be
tempting to include intriguing content like in-depth textual descriptions, entertaining
stories, or background music, yet doing so can actually hinder students' learning. The
personalization principle, which suggests that the activity should directly address the
pupils in a conversational approach, is the last one. These four general principles
result in the three groupings that hold the sixteen quality indicators. Layout is the
first group. The activity's style should prevent scrolling, give a succinct description,
demand few tasks, and eliminate distractions. Dynamic figures make up the next
group. This group identifies a good activity as one that is engaging, simple to use, the
right size, places dynamic text near matching objects, stays clear of static text clutter,
and is immediately readable. Tasks and explanations make up the final group. The
audience for all explanations and tasks should be learners, so there should only be a
small number of particular questions referring to the applet and terminology, as well
as tasks that provide demonstration figures but have no other tasks or questions
linked (Kovacs & Cole, 2019). Based on the last Kovacs’ method to examine the
group-4 work of Desmos custom activities, their online activity materials meet
almost all of quality identifiers recommended by Kovacs. Thus, By the perspective of
Kovacs method, the work is high quality. This part successfully shows how group-4
Desmos lesson is evaluated in accordance with these three various criteria.

Response
From my point of view, there are two ultimate merits of group-4 Desmos lesson.
First, all learning objectives listed in Teacher Move on screen four can be successfully
fulfilled. Let us wear NCTM’s hat again to clarify the first statement. Several activities
in four sections were well devised for students to meet the objectives and engage in
sense making to support their learning. They also decided how to implement the
lesson from the simple level to harder level, organization of students with 30, time
allotted to the lesson with 60 minutes. Towards the end of the lesson, all 30 students
were given the opportunity to express their feelings and assisted by teachers to draw
significant observations and conclusions. The well-designed lesson and activity follow
NCTM guidelines to fulfill the learning objectives effectively. Second, the online
Desmos materials are of excellent quality to encourage student learning. Kovacs'
methodology suggests that rather than relying solely on words, instructional events
should also use images. In every section of group-4 Desmos lesson, every function
was explained using both word formulas and diagram. This meets the multimedia
principle. Additionally, every corresponding word function and graphic in Desmos are
placed near each other on the same page. This meets the contiguity principle.
Furthermore, each activity in Desmos is placed on one page without scrolling with a
brief explanation. This meets the layout principle. From the above-mentioned
designs, it is possible to say that the Desmos online materials are high quality for
students’ learning. Yet, there is a demerit found in the Desmos lesson. In this work,
they demonstrated a lack of understanding of both how to employ technology with
various pedagogical strategies and how to teach mathematics concepts with various
pedagogical strategies. Throughout the work, it could not tell which pedagogical
strategies they applied in conducting the lesson and preparing for the lesson plan. By
testing the work with the TPACK model, the lesson designers lack the understanding
of relationships among technology, pedagogical and content knowledge when they
adopted technology-based lessons.

Conclusion
Based on the three criteria of TPACK (Technological, Pedagogical, and Content
Knowledge) model, NCTM (the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics)
guidelines and Kovacs’s methodology to evaluate group-4 work of Desmos Lesson for
Teaching Transformation, this work has its merits and demerits. The first merit of this
work is that the lesson plan and well-devised activities followed NCTM guidelines to
fulfill the learning objectives effectively. The second merit of this work is that the
teaching materials followed Kovacs' methodology to provide students with high
quality materials. The ultimate demerit of this work is that the lesson designers lack
the understanding of relationships among technology, pedagogical and content
knowledge when they adopted technology-based lessons. Overall, this work is highly
recommended owing to the well-designed lesson plan, well-devised activities and
high-quality teaching materials.
Appendices
Appendix A: Transformations of Graphs • Teacher Guide
file:///Users/chenwangshan/Downloads/Transformations%20of%20Graphs
%20%E2%80%A2%20Teacher%20Guide_Group%204%20(1).pdf
Appendix B: The Desmos Activity
https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/
641af1357afc0f181c950c45#preview/1557cc79-41b1-4fce-a14d-4a22cda227ea

References
Getenet, S. T. (2018). Using Dynamic Software to Teach Mathematical Concepts:
The Cases of GeoGebra and Microsoft Mathematics. Electronic Journal of
Mathematics & Technology, 12(1), 209–229. doi: 10.1007/978-981-15-4269- 5_11
Kovács, Z., Cole, Z. (2019). Wise Use Of GeoGebra Supported By An Evaluation
Routine. Electronic Journal of Mathematics & Technology, 13(2), 136–144.
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