STUDENTS LEARNING PATHS AS ‘DYNAMIC ENCEPHALOGRAPHS’ OF THEIR COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

The current study presents excerpts of my PhD thesis in which I developed a ‘dynamic’ hypothetical learning path (DHLP) with regard to student’s cognitive development. The aim was to investigate if they would raise their van Hiele levels during and after participation in the research process. Students interacted using the interaction techniques of the Geometer’s Sketchpad software and the transformations of its dynamic representations. Moreover, the role of linking visual active representations (LVARs) in the software and the role of students’ instrumental decoding in the cognitive process have been investigated. Finally, examples of students learning paths, like ‘dynamic encephalographs’ of their cognitive development, will be presented.