Abstract

Several researches examined students' mathematics learning using mobile phones, while very few researches examined mathematics teaching using this new educational tool. This research attempts to analyze in-service and pre-service teachers' attitudes and decisions regarding mathematics teaching with mobile phones using activity theory. More specifically, three case studies are analyzed in this research: One concerns an in-service teacher who used mobile phones in her class, the second case study involves a pre-service teacher who collaborated with the in-service teacher to teach mathematics lessons using mobile phones, and the third case study is about 15 pre-service teachers who were observers of the experiment but did not use mobile phones in their teaching. We held one-hour semi-structured interviews with the in-service teacher, with the leading pre-service teacher and with the group of other observer pre-service teachers. This happened three times during the academic year: at the beginning of the experiment, after three months and after it ended. 
 The research findings indicate that different factors have an impact on the attitudes and decisions of the teacher: history of the teacher using technologies in teaching, perceptions of the teacher using technologies in teaching, community’s teacher, rules regulating the use of technologies in teaching mathematics, and division of labor. For example, questions as to who decides which technologies to use in the classroom and who should prepare the learning material for the students. Contradictions were identified in mathematics teachers' activity when utilizing mobile phones in their teaching. These contradictions hinder or slow such utilization. Community, especially its leading members, mediated and helped overcome the activity contradictions that arose throughout the experiment regarding the teaching processes in and/or out of the mathematics classroom.

Highlights

  • Mobile and wireless devices, especially mobile phones, have become increasingly common among young students

  • We describe the activity system's elements regarding each of the three case studies in which this research involves: the in-service teacher's case, the leading pre-service teacher's case and the other observer pre-service teachers' case

  • History: The in-service teacher has a history of using mathematical software in teaching mathematics

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Especially mobile phones, have become increasingly common among young students. This provides new possibilities, opportunities, and challenges for education [1]. This is especially true for mathematics education, where students can use technologies to assist them to conceive independently and/or with the guide of the teacher mathematical concepts and relations. The possibilities and opportunities regarding the use of mobile phones in mathematics education have been reported in the past few years in the literature, regarding students' learning (see for example [2], [3]). We have studied different educational aspects of mathematics learning related to the mobile phone environment, where these aspects involved the behavioral aspect of students’ learning ([4], [5]), the affective aspect of students’ learning ([6], [7]; [8]), the social aspect ([9], [10]), the cognitive aspect ([8], [5]) and the metacognitive aspect of this learning [8]

Objectives
Results
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call