Direct teaching in mathematics classes

In the first part of the diploma thesis I am comparing direct and indirect approach of teaching. The main emphasis is on direct teaching and on the issues that might arise when presenting new topic using the direct approach. Due to fact that direct teaching is particularly suitable for students with learning problems I describe the key issues that we have to consider when teaching students with harder understanding of mathematics. To support ideas presented in the theoretical part I add two commented lesson plans for a same topic, one based on the direct approach and one based on the indirect approach. In the empirical part of my thesis I present a pilot study, with which I explored the differences between students regarding their preference toward indirect or direct style of teaching. Mainly I was interested on whether the whole observed population has preference toward one style of teaching and whether there is a significant difference between students that were previously subject to different teaching approaches. Furthermore I investigated whether the preference for direct or indirect teaching approach is related to the learning success of the students and whether students with poor mathematical knowledge perform better if the direct approach is used. The main aim of the pilot study was, however, to test the appropriateness of the instruments which will be used in a future research.