Geometric Thinking Behaviours of Undergraduates on-Entry and at-Exit of Online Geometry Course. Science Journal of Education

The development of students’ geometry thinking through digital platforms remains quite debatable in pedagogical literature. This descriptive study examined the entry and exit geometric thinking behaviours of students who took an undergraduate Geometry course via vclass Moodle platform for the first time. The 14-week course was designed and delivered using Gagne’s nine events of instructions. Data were collected from a cohort of 280 first year students pursuing degree of Bachelor of Science in Mathematics Education at the University of Education, Winneba. The van Hiele’s Geometric thinking test was used to assess entry and exit behaviours of participants. Data were first analysed descriptively and displayed in proportions and charts. Paired samples t-test was carried out to test for significant differences between entry and exit geometric thinking behaviours of participants. On-entry, the result shows that close to three-quarters of the students operated at the lowest level of geometric thinking i.e. visualization. Only about 20% and 6% exhibited analysis and abstraction skills respectively while no participant demonstrated the highest thinking skills of geometric deduction and rigor. At-exit, the proportions of students increased markedly and differed substantially from entry across geometric thinking levels. The difference in students’ geometric thinking behaviours between entry and exit were statistically significant. The study concludes that delivering undergraduate geometry course via the vclass Moodle platform significantly improves undergraduates’ geometric thinking skills despite some observed constraints. It is recommended that lecturers design their undergraduate geometry course on vclass in line with Gagne’s nine events of instructions to bridge existing thinking gaps