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Report on INFODIDACT 2008 - the First National Conference on Didactics of Informatics: 11-12 April, 2008, Szombathely, Hungary
1-2Views:141Acquiring a PhD in any subject has been possible only in the last twentish years in Hungary. To take degree in didactics, especially didactics of informatics is still very difficult. There are not enough forums for the PhD students where they could report of their research work and results. -
An evaluating tool for programming contests
103-119Views:193Students of the University of Debrecen majoring in informatics have been participating in regional ACM international collegiate programming contests since 1995. In earlier times arrangement of the local rounds was difficult because we had to check the contestants' submissions by hand. Beyond the discomfort, this hindered the efficient work of the jury and involved a number of possibilities of making mistakes.
The Programming Contest Result Manager (PCRM) program developed in the past two years provides a solution to the above problems. The program automates the evaluation of submissions and provides both the jury and the contestants with a user interface. This application can help the jury not only in ACM type but also in other kinds of practical programming contests. -
Report of meeting Researches in Didactics of Mathematics and Computer Sciences: January 25-27, 2013 Oradea, Romania
123-143Views:216The meeting Researches in Didactics of Mathematics and Computer Sciences was held in Oradea, Romania from the 25th to the 27th of January, 2013 at the Partium Christian University. It was organized by the PhD School of Mathematics and Computer Sciences of the University of Debrecen and the Partium Christian University in Oradea. The meeting was supported by the project: TAMOP-4.2.2/B/10/1-2010-0024.
The 61 participants – including 50 lecturers and 21 PhD students – came from 5 countries, 22 cities and represented 35 intstitutions of higher education. -
Report of meeting Researches in Didactics of Mathematics and Computer Sciences: January 21 – January 23, 2010, Debrecen, Hungary
177-195Views:173The meeting Researches in Didactics of Mathematics and Computer Sciences was held in Debrecen, Hungary from January 21 to January 23, 2010. The 42 Hungarian participants – including 16 PhD students – came from 5 countries, 14 cities and represented 25 institutions of higher education. The abstracts of the talks and the posters and also the list of participants are presented in this report. -
Teaching multiparadigm programming based on object-oriented experiences
171-182Views:223Multiparadigm programming is an emerging practice in computer technology. Co-existence of object-oriented, generic and functional techniques can better handle variability of projects. The present paper gives an overview of teaching multiparadigm programming approach through typical language concepts, tools in higher education. Students learning multiparadigm-oriented subjects would gain considerable expertise, which is highly needed by the industrial side in large-scale application development. -
Experimentieren um einen Satz zu finden - vollständig separierbare Mosaike auf der Kugel und ihre Anwendungen
297-319Views:170This paper reports a case-study which took place within the project named "Inner differentiation and individualization by creating prototypes and analogies under consideration of motivational constraints (taking into account computer-based teaching and learning)" as a part of a pre-service teacher training at the University of Salzburg (Herber, H.-J. & Vásárhelyi, É.).
The goal of the experiment was to help students to learn the fundamental concepts and basic constructions of spherical geometry using the Lénárt Sphere (a transparent plastic ball with construction-tools) and some self-made interactive worksheets with the Windows version of the dynamical geometry software Cabri. -
Self-regulated learning in mathematics lessons at secondary level
139-160Views:189Self-regulation is a prerequisite to be able to set goals and to find suitable ways to reach them. Furthermore, it is an important ability which affects different areas of every day’s life. In educational context, self-regulation is often linked to self-regulated learning. The concept of self-regulated learning as well as key terms related to this topic such as problem-solving and modelling tasks will be discussed, while an emphasis lays on the role of the teacher. In this paper, a study on the attitudes of mathematics teachers towards self-regulated learning is presented. It focuses on teachers’ assessment of the possibility and limitations of self-regulated learning in mathematics lessons. It can be observed that most of the surveyed teachers try to incorporate self-regulatory processes in their teaching, but encounter difficulties related to various factors, such as their students, framework conditions, and the time required for such learning processes.
Subject Classification: 97D10
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The formation of area concept with the help of manipulative activities
121-139Views:205Examining the performance of Hungarian students of Grades 4-12 in connection with area measurement, we found many deficiencies and thinking failures. In the light of this background, it seems reasonable to review the educational practice and to identify those teaching movements that trigger the explored problems and to design a teaching experiment that tries to avoid and exclude them. Based on result we make recommendations for the broad teaching practice. In our study we report on one part of a multi-stage teaching experiment in which we dealt with the comparison of the areas of figures, the decomposition of figures and the special role of the rectangle in the process of area concept formation. The conclusion of the post-test is that manipulative activities are important and necessary in Grades 5 and 6, more types of equidecomposition activities are needed and the number of measuring tasks with grid as a tool should also be increased. -
The application of modelling tasks in the classroom – why and how? with reflections on an EU teacher training course
231-244Views:304The aim of the article is to present the concept of mathematical modelling in the classroom. LEMA (Learning and Education in and through Modelling and Applications) was an EU Comenius funded project in which mathematics educators from six countries worked to produce materials to support teachers' professional development. A group of voluntary Hungarian mathematics teachers were taught modelling for a year and we were and still are given feedback continously. The article leads us from the general concept of mathematical modelling to its practice in the classroom. It presents difficulties that teachers have to face when doing modelling lessons and their students' reactions are also mentioned. We present sample tasks from the material of the teacher training course as well as tasks that were created by the participants. -
Die Methode von Prof. Tibor Szele im Unterricht begabter Schüler
143-151Views:244Prof. Tibor Szele' has attempted to develop the mathematical problemsolving, creativity include the use of investigations and host of other devices beyond the classroom, i.e. in "mathematical circles" for talented students in secondary schools. This paper of the author – who himself has taken part in Seles1s mathematical circles – quotes from these activities according his earlier notes. This description illustrates the didactic method of Prof. T. Szele. -
Mobile devices in Hungarian university statistical education
19-48Views:219The methodological renewal of university statistics education has been continuous for the last 30 years. During this time, the involvement of technology tools in learning statistics played an important role. In the Introduction, we emphasize the importance of using technological tools in learning statistics, also referring to international research. After that, we firstly examine the methodological development of university statistical education over the past three decades. To do this, we analyze the writings of statistics teachers teaching at various universities in the country. To assess the use of innovative tools, in the second half of the study, we briefly present an online questionnaire survey of students in tertiary economics and an interview survey conducted with statistics teachers.
Subject Classification: 97-01, 97U70, 87K80
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The influence of computer on examining trigonometric functions
111-123Views:204In this paper the influence of computer on examining trigonometric functions was analyzed throughout the results questionnaire. The students, as usual, had to examine two trigonometric functions, both were given with the appropriate instructions. Three groups were tested. Two of those three groups were prepared with the help of computer and the third one was taught without computer. From the analysis of the questionnaire it follows that the computer has a great influence on understanding of the connections between the graph and very complex calculations. -
A Nim like game and a machine that plays it: a learning situation at the interface of mathematics and computer science
317-326Views:437The purpose of this work is to take a didactic look at a learning situation located at the interface between mathematics and computer science. This situation offers a first approach to the concept of artificial intelligence through the study of a reinforcement learning device. The learning situation, inspired by the Computer Science Unplugged approach, is based on a combinatorial game, along with a device that learns how to play this game. We studied the learning potential when the human players face the machine. After an a priori analysis using the Theory of Didactic Situations (TDS), we conducted a pre-experiment in order to strengthen our hypotheses. In this article, we will focus on the analysis of the didactic variables, the values we have chosen for these variables and their effects on students’ strategies.
Subject Classification: 97D99, 97K99, 97P80
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Discovery as culture, not template: lessons from Hungary
77-102Views:77In this study, I investigate the structural adaptations necessary to implement Hungarian-style guided discovery in mainstream secondary school classrooms. During a six-week residency in Budapest, I observed classrooms, interviewed five Hungarian educators, and collected survey and interview data from students. My findings suggest that guided discovery in Hungary is less a fixed method and more a pedagogical culture, shaped by shared values, historical influences, and professional communities. While Hungarian educators praised its ability to foster deep thinking, student agency, and creativity, they also described challenges around pacing, assessment, and curriculum alignment. Structural supports such as flexible curriculum frameworks, professional networks, and differentiated assessment practices emerged as critical enablers of the method’s success. Student responses revealed both the promise of discovery-based instruction and the pressures it can create without sufficient scaffolding. I conclude that Hungarian-style guided discovery is not best understood as a replicable model, but as a set of values that evolve through professional dialogue and trial-and-error. Its meaningful implementation depends not on uniform procedures, but on the presence of cultural, institutional, and community structures that allow teachers to make it their own.
Subject Classification: 97D40, 97D50, 97C30
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On the psychology of mathematical problem solving by gifted students
289-301Views:206This paper examines the nature of mathematical problem solving from a psychological viewpoint as a sequence of mental steps. The scope is limited to solution processes for well defined problems, for instance, which occur at International Mathematical Olympiads. First the meta-mathematical background is outlined in order to present problem solving as a well defined search problem and hence as a discovery process. Solving problems is described as a sequence of elementary steps of the so called "relationship-vision" introduced here. Finally, non-procedural aspects of the psychology of problem solving are summarized, such as the role of persistence, teacher-pupil relationship, the amount of experience needed, self-confidence and inspiration at competitions. -
Word problems in different textbooks at the early stage of teaching mathematics comparative analysis
31-49Views:363In a previous research, Csíkos and Szitányi (2019) studied teachers’ views and pedagogical content knowledge on the teaching of mathematical word problems. While doing so, they reviewed and compared Eastern European textbooks of Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Croatia, and Hungary to see how world problem-solving strategies are presented in commonly used textbooks. Their results suggested that teachers, in general, agreed with the approach of the textbooks regarding the explicit solution strategies and the types of word problems used for teaching problem-solving. They also revealed that the majority of the participants agreed that a word problem-solving algorithm should be introduced to the students as early as in the first school year. These results have been presented at the Varga 100 Conference in November 2019. As the findings suggested a remarkable similarity between the Eastern European textbook approaches, in the current study we decided to conduct further research involving more textbooks from China, Finland, and the United States.
Subject Classification: 97U20, 08A50
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Mathematics teachers' reasons to use (or not) intentional errors
263-282Views:359Mathematics teachers can make use of both spontaneously arising and intentionally planted errors. Open questions about both types of errors were answered by 23 Finnish middle-school teachers. Their reasons to use or not to use errors were analyzed qualitatively. Seven categories were found: Activation and discussion, Analyzing skills, Correcting misconceptions, Learning to live with errors, (Mis)remembering errors, (Mis)understanding error and Time. Compared to earlier results, the teachers placed substantially less emphasis on affective issues, whereas the answers yielded new distinctions in cognitive dimensions. In particular, teachers' inclination to see errors as distractions could be divided into two aspects: students misunderstanding an error in the first place or student forgetting that an error was erroneous. Furthermore, the content analysis revealed generally positive beliefs towards using errors but some reservations about using intentional errors. Teachers viewed intentional errors mainly positively as possibilities for discussion, analysis and learning to live with mistakes. -
Probabilistic thinking, characteristic features
13-36Views:164This paper is the first step in a series of a general research project on possible development in probability approach. Our goal is to check with quantitative methods how correct our presumptions formulated during our teaching experience were. In order to get an answer to this question, we conducted a survey among third-year students at our college about their general and scientific concepts as well as about the way they typically think. -
Zbigniew Michalewicz - Matthew Michalewicz: Puzzle Based Learning: An introduction to critical thinking, mathematics, and problem solving. Hybrid Publishers Melbourne 2008 (Book review)
415-420Views:312Based on their experiences with engineering, mathematics, computer science, business students concerning the puzzle based learning in different countries the authors summarize their main problem solving teaching ideas. With help of interesting, motivating, nice problems they analyze the main mathematical principles and problem types. The review gives an overview about the main ideas, results of an interesting book. -
Metadata formats and the new markup language from library field
85-102Views:181Using new communication technologies libraries must face continuously new questions, possibilities and expectations. This study discusses some library-related aspects of our electronic era and how computer-related data formats affect bibliographic dataprocessing to give a survey of the most important results.
Altough library systems have been supporting the creation and maintenance of MARC records for decades, the need to create other forms of metadata is relatively new. In higher education it is important that students get acquainted with these new aspects of bibliographic description and bibliographic dataprocessing.
In our department I launched the BDML development project in order to standardize bibliographic description (based on Hungarian standard 3424/1) with the help of XML. The development aims at the creation of a set of standards that provides information about the structure of bibliographic description in XML form. In the second part of the paper I give a brief presentation and summary of BDML. -
The time spent on board games pays off: links between board game playing and competency motivation
119-131Views:427The impact playing has on the development of thinking is an important topic of psychology of learning, brain research and mathematics didactics.
Our research is also connected to the aforementioned topic. We investigated the effects of playing board games on competence motivation and the development of mathematical competencies.
In this paper, we present the results of an experiment carried out in a secondary school class.
The experimental group spent one of three weekly mathematics lessons playing board games.
Apart from the several advantages of playing games in general, we can conclude that, based on the results of the national competence measurement, the mathematical competence of the students developed properly.
The readiness and the progress of the pupils were compared on the basis of input and output tests and an initial knowledge measurement and, at the same time, we compared their level of mathematical competence with the results of the national competence
measurement.Subject Classification: 97C70, 97D40
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Teaching probability using graph representations
103-122Views:238The main objective of this paper is to present an elementary approach to classical probability theory, based on a Van Hiele type framework, using graph representation and counting techniques, highly suitable for teaching in lower and upper secondary schools. The main advantage of this approach is that it is not based on set theoretical, or combinatorial knowledge, hence it is more suitable for beginners and facilitates the transitions from level 0 to level 3. We also mention a few teaching experiences on different levels (lower secondary school, upper secondary school, teacher training, professional development, university students) based on this approach. -
Report on the "English Language Section of Varga Tamás Days 2009"
169-175Views:186The 9th English Language Section as a part of the Varga Tamás Days was organised by the Department of Mathematics Education at the Teacher Training Institute of the Eötvös Loránd University. We report on the talks and the following discussions in this section. -
From iteration to one - dimensional discrete dynamical systems using CAS
271-296Views:124In our paper we present the basic didactical framework and approaches of a course on one-dimensional discrete dynamical systems made with the help of Computer Algebra Systems (CAS) for students familiar with the fundamentals of calculus. First we review some didactical principles of teaching mathematics in general and write about the advantages of the modularization for CAS in referring to the constructivistic view of learning. Then we deal with our own development, a CAS-based collection of programs for teaching Newton's method for the calculation of roots of a real function. Included is the discussion of domains of attraction and chaotic behaviour of the iterations. We summarize our teaching experiences using CAS. -
Report of meeting Researches in Didactics of Mathematics and Computer Sciences: January 20 - January 22, 2012, Levoča, Slovakia
205-230Views:220The meeting Researches in Didactics of Mathematics and Computer Sciences was held in Levoca, Slovakia from the 20th to the 22th of January, 2012. The 66 participants – including 54 lecturers and 25 PhD students – came from 6 countries, 20 cities and represented 33 institutions of higher and secondary education. The abstract of the talks and the posters and also the list of participants are presented in this report.
