Nenad Vulovic | University of Kragujevac (original) (raw)

Papers by Nenad Vulovic

New Educational Review, Sep 30, 2020

Nastava i Vaspitanje, 2011

Uzdanica, 2022

Mathematics competitions represent a very important segment of educational support to gifted stud... more Mathematics competitions represent a very important segment of educational support to gifted students and play a significant role in identifying, motivating and working with those mathematically gifted. The COVID-19 pandemic had a strong impact on all seg- ments of the educational process, including the implementation of mathematics classes, regular and additional, as well as the organization and implementation of mathematics competitions. In this paper we wanted to examine whether the changed conditions in which regular and ad- ditional mathematics classes were implemented had an impact on the achievement of the best- performing math students. The aim of the research is to examine the adoption of advanced level mathematical content that students should have acquired at school in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research sample consisted of 4,064 third-grade students (school year 2020/2021) and 3,824 fourth-grade students (school year 2021/2022). The research results indicate that students who should be able to solve advanced level tasks show insufficient practice in performing the four basic calculation operations, as well as insufficient adoption of different methods of solving advanced level tasks. By looking at the achievements of the same generation of students through two consecutive competition cycles, it can be seen that insufficiently adopted concepts in the third grade during the first year of the pandemic remained unexplained in the transition to a higher grade where they represent a problem for further advancement of students.

The aim of this study was to investigate how class teachers and math teachers in Serbia perceived... more The aim of this study was to investigate how class teachers and math teachers in Serbia perceived the possibilities, effects, and challenges of teaching mathematics online during the COVID-19 pandemic. We prepared a questionnaire that was implemented at the end of 2019/2020. The sample comprised 239 teachers, 141 class teachers and 98 math teachers. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used for data analysis. The results suggest that, although the experience of online teaching had a positive effect on the teachers’ self-reported competence in using ICT tools, even more attention should be given to strengthening teachers’ pedagogical skills referring to teaching mathematics in an online learning environment. In general, teachers were satisfied with the quality of instruction they demonstrated. However, they were not satisfied with the quality of student knowledge. In addition, they faced certain challenges in the implementation of online teaching and learning, such as objective grading and assessment, as well as monitoring student progress, maintaining communication with parents, and motivating and engaging students. The majority of teachers stated that teaching math online had more disadvantages than advantages. Teachers’ responses also indicated that they tended to use ICT tools in a more traditional way.

The presented study aimed to investigate the attitudes of preservice kindergarten teachers about ... more The presented study aimed to investigate the attitudes of preservice kindergarten teachers about the effects of two models of Mathematics Teaching Practicum teaching practice (Lesson Study model and traditional model of teaching practice) on the development of their professional competences to teach mathematics concepts. The quasi-experimental design with two parallel groups was used. The sample of research consisted of 49 students which were divided into control (27) and experimental group (22). The experimental group worked according to the experimental program which included the application of the Lesson Study design of teaching practice, while the control group worked in the traditional way. The results indicate that, although the students of the experimental group expressed more positive attitudes towards the usefulness of the applied model of teaching practice for the development of their profession- al competences, there was no statistically significant difference in attitudes between the two groups. As the most useful segment of the experimental program, students singled out the possibility of carrying out directed activities in a simu- lated environment and, after the evaluation, carrying out the same activity in a real environment in the kindergarten. Although the findings of the study cannot be generalized due to the small sample size, we believe that the results of this research have significance for both researchers and educators involved in teacher education preparation programmes.

Zbornik radova Pedagoskog fakulteta Uzice

Numerous experimental studies have shown the advantages of using educational software in teaching... more Numerous experimental studies have shown the advantages of using educational software in teaching mathematics. One of the dynamic educational software that has recently gained great popularity in teaching mathematics is GeoGebra. The geometric transformations and dynamic functions of the software can be effectively applied at various education levels, from elementary school to university level. The aim of this paper is to present, through selected examples, some possibilities of GeoGebra software that can help students in lower grades of elementary school become proficient in the concept of the perimeter of a figure in a plane (rectangle, square and triangle), thus allowing them to follow each step in the pattern formation for calculating the perimeter.

Узданица

In a time of quick changes and technological development, the key task of teaching mathematics is... more In a time of quick changes and technological development, the key task of teaching mathematics is to encourage and develop mathematical thinking. The teaching of mathematics is important in the life of every individual because mathematics permeates all aspects of human activity. Mathematical thinking is necessary for solving many problems in everyday life and work of every individual. The ability to find rules in the initial teaching of mathematics is one of the abilities of mathematical thinking, more precisely logical, and its encouragement and development in teaching contributes to the encouragement and development of mathematical thinking. This paper presents specific examples of problem tasks that encourage and develop the ability to find rules in the initial teaching of mathematics, as well as the results of the research conducted to examine the effects of the application of these problem tasks. The research sample consisted of 238 third grade elementary school students. The r...

Inovacije u nastavi, 2020

The aim of the study is to investigate the possibility for fourth grade students to use the adapt... more The aim of the study is to investigate the possibility for fourth grade students to use the adapted Fangcheng method as a tool for solving word problems. In the first part of the paper we give an overview of the Ancient Chinese Fangcheng method for solving systems of linear equations. The second part consists of the research methodology, results and discussion. We used the quasi-experimental one-group design with post-test only. The sample included 48 fourth grade students. The research had two phases, and at the end of each phase post-tests were conducted. In the first phase, all students participated in the intervention program, while the second phase included only those students who performed well on the first post-test. The study results indicate that students who show greater interest in mathematics successfully adopt procedures necessary for the performance of the Fangcheng method. The findings of the study cannot be applied to all students considering the fact that there are ...

Uzdanica, 2021

The subject of this paper is to examine to what extent students, future class teachers, are able ... more The subject of this paper is to examine to what extent students, future class teachers, are able to determine errors and inaccuracies in the formulation of textual mathematical tasks. The competence of future class teachers on this matter was evaluated based on the criteria which referred to the following: unrealistically given values of data in the tasks, conditions of tasks that cannot be performed, imprecise use of mathematical terminology and content, and linguistic inaccuracy in formulations. The sample consisted of 65 students, future teachers, all of whom attended basic courses in mathematics and methodology of teaching mathematics. The data were processed by using qualitative and standard quantitative analysis procedures. The results indicate that future class teachers are not sufficiently prepared and trained to identify errors in textually given mathematical problems. They do not pay enough attention to the realistic character of the given quantities and the existence of conditions necessary for solving the task. They do not recognize the problems due to the insufficient knowledge of mathematical terminology and the precision that the language of mathematics requires. The results indicate that students, as future most direct participants in forming children’s mathematical literacy, need to be better trained for linguistically correct formulation of mathematical tasks.

Zbornik Instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 2016

The paper deals with the characteristics of students? products of independent writing in mathemat... more The paper deals with the characteristics of students? products of independent writing in mathematics instruction. The importance of the research stems from a relatively low achievement of primary school students in Serbia on international tests of trends of students? achievement in mathematics and sciences, as well as from the prominent need, proven both empirically and theoretically, to devote attention to writing not solely in language instruction, considering a low level of basic and functional literacy of students. The aim of the research was to study the characteristics of students? products in which they translated mathematical expressions into textual form. The criteria for analysing students? products were the following: mathematical accuracy, reality of the context, variety and originality of topics, dominant types of text structuring and normative, lexical and syntactic characteristics. The sample included 198 fourth-grade primary school students. Standard quantitative and...

Journal of the Institute for Educational Research, 2016

The paper deals with the characteristics of students’ products of independent writing in mathemat... more The paper deals with the characteristics of students’ products of independent writing in mathematics instruction. The importance of the research stems from a relatively low achievement of primary school students in Serbia on international tests of trends of students’ achievement in mathematics and sciences, as well as from the prominent need, proven both empirically and theoretically, to devote attention to writing not solely in language instruction, considering a low level of basic and functional literacy of students. The aim of the research was to study the characteristics of students’ products in which they translated mathematical expressions into textual form. The criteria for analysing students’ products were the following: mathematical accuracy, reality of the context, variety and originality of topics, dominant types of text structuring and normative, lexical and syntactic characteristics. The sample included 198 fourth-grade primary school students. Standard quantitative and qualitative methodological procedures were used. The findings indicate that the students have not been sufficiently trained to translate mathematical expressions into the form of textual tasks. Although they recognised and complied with the rules of the genre and functional style, students did not pay attention to the reality of the context and quantities. They also neglected other aspects that are not directly related to mathematics instruction: innovativeness in selecting the topics of textual tasks, orthographic and grammatical accuracy of the text/textual task, choice of vocabulary and syntactic complexity of sentences. The results also suggest that it is necessary to devote more attention to open-ended problems and the quality of linguistic expression in the instruction of all school subjects.