The development of an inquiry-based teaching unit for Turkish high school mathematics teachers on integral calculus: the case of definite integral

Abstract

The 2013 official national curriculum published by the Turkish Ministry of Education formally required high school mathematics teachers to actively incorporate computer software in their teaching. The primary purpose of this study was to demonstrate the development of an inquiry-based teaching unit especially geared for high school mathematics students and teachers for the general concept of integral calculus. The main theme chosen as a case for this proposed inquiry unit was on definite integral and volumes of solids of revolution of real life daily objects. As a result, the primary purpose was to provide the process of developing a practical example of using pedagogically driven dynamic mathematics software (GeoGebra), a 3D digital model coupled with hands-on real life examples, all embedded in a constructivist learning environment. Also, within this study, the perceived effectiveness of the developed teaching unit by in-service high school mathematics teachers based on their experiences was reported.