DEVELOPING PROFESSIONAL PEDAGOGICAL CAPACITY FOR HIGH SCHOOL MATHEMATICS TEACHERS THROUGH THE USE OF VISUAL IMAGES IN TEACHING UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE CONSTRUCTIVISM THEORY

Abstract

Learner-oriented and learner-centered teaching is a key argument in many modern teaching theories. One of the characteristics that reflects the nature of the constructivism theory is the idea that knowledge is actively built up by the cognitive subject and not passively acquired from the outside surrounding.

In line with current trends, many mathematicians have taken interest in using visual images to facilitate the teaching and learning of mathematics in order to activate students’ activities of exploring and constructing knowledge and to enhance their creative thinking capacity. This article presents ways to use areas of plane figures, lengths of line segments and iterative procedures to represent numbers, thereby assisting the teaching of mathematical properties under the direction of the constructivism theory for the purpose of meeting the requirements of the fundamental and comprehensive reform of education and training as well as the demands of industrialization and modernization in the context of the socialist-oriented market economy and international integration.