Mathematics student personas for the design of technology-enhanced learning environments

Abstract

To benefit from the quickly expanding range of new possibilities of technology-enhanced education, school systems, schools, and teachers need to adapt quickly. Conversely, the needs of students and teachers in a technology-enhanced classroom require technology developers to provide and improve suitable technologies. In this paper, we aim to show how to make the professional knowledge of mathematics teachers accessible to developers of technologies and also to teacher trainers and trainees by the use of student personas, i.e., portraits of archetypical students with particular characteristics and needs. We have collected qualitative data from pre-service and in-service mathematics teachers in Austrian academic upper secondary schools about the characteristics and needs of their students. We have analysed these data using a grounded theory approach to derive demands of students on technology-enhanced learning environments (TELEs). We have identified and presented five personas, each with specific demands on TELEs, to represent this target group. By introducing this approach that combines techniques from mathematics education research and from user experience research, we are able to represent user groups of a mathematics technology-enhanced learning environment in a more relatable way than was previously possible. These relatable representations of students in Austrian academic upper secondary schools could be of particular importance for developers of technology-enhanced learning environments for teaching and learning mathematics. The methodology presented in this paper is adaptable to other contexts.