Using Scratch to facilitate mathematical thinking

Abstract

This paper reports on a research project that examined the ways that 10-year-old students using Scratch for coding engaged with mathematical ideas. Interactive software is emerging that has cross-curricula implications and facilitates thinking in rich, problem-solving environments. Scratch, a free-to-use graphical programing environment provides opportunities for creative problem solving. When students process mathematics through digital technologies, the digital pedagogical media influences the learning process and students’ understanding emerges in distinctive ways. The children used Scratch to create mathematical digital learning objects, including games. An interpretive approach to the analysis was undertaken, using a contemporary hermeneutic theoretical frame that sees insight and understanding emerge from engaging with phenomena from underlying perspectives, with interpreting and reflecting on output from that engagement leading to changes in perspective. Re-engaging with the phenomena from these fresh perspectives, hence initiates an iterative process that leads to the emerging understanding of the situation. The findings suggest that mathematical thinking, including geometry and problem-solving processes, was also facilitated through this process.