Effectiveness of GeoGebra towards Students’ Active Learning, Performance and Interest to Learn Mathematics

The present study explored the effectiveness of GeoGebra in enhancing students’ active learning, performance and interest to learn mathematics. Much emphasis was put in teaching and learning exponential and logarithmic functions. The general intention was to investigate whether the use of ICT be used to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics in Rwandan Secondary Schools. The present study is an experimental research design that employed Grade 11 students of one secondary school within Kayonza district of Rwanda. Thus, sample of 34 Grade 11 students were taught exponential and logarithmic functions with the use of GeoGebra from 19 August 2019 to 30 October 2019. Before the intervention, a short group discussion with Grade 11 students was conducted to see the students’ attitudes about learning mathematics using ICT tools. Besides, a mathematics teacher was asked a challenging topic to teach within conventional classroom. After learning with the use of GeoGebra, an attitudinal survey questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data about the effectiveness of GeoGebra in learning mathematics. Data were analyzed descriptively using Excel 2016. It was found that students acquired more knowledge. The study showed that students can learn independently through interactive dynamic software. The results, therefore, showed that students’ interest to learn mathematics increased. There is a need to strengthen one laptop per student program to enhance students’ independent learning of mathematics