Abstract
Within a curriculum project (the Rehovot Program) a software was designed to shape students' intuitions in the understanding of graphs of quantitative relationships. By intuition we mean a non-formal (without algebraic equations) appreciation of sets of points (e.g., straight lines) and their verbal description. A background study was conducted with eighth-grade students (n = 54), which showed that students who only used the regular program textbook were at a low stage of readiness for the encounter with graphs, whereas students (n = 84) who used the software exhibited high readiness. A subsequent study was conducted to evaluate the effects of the software on seventh-grade students (experimental group n = 78, control group n = 77). Experimental students demonstrated intuitive understanding of graphical solutions of linear equations and inequalities. Eight months later a retention follow-up study was applied to the same students (now in the eighth grade), just before they started the study of graphs of linear equations, and showed significant retention of what had been learned using the software. The results of the two studies are discussed and compared in the light of effective integration of the software in the algebra course.
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