Abstract
The present study investigated the use of mobile learning on students' (with different initial mathematical performance), understanding in geometry. The sample of the study was consisted of 162 5th grade students at secondary education (16-17 years old) who were divided into experimental and control group. For the mobile learning the Euclidea app was installed by the experimental group in their smart phones and it was used at the teaching of specific geometrical concepts. Emphasis was given on students’ experiences. Although there were not any statistically significant differences between the two main groups concerning their performance, further analyses of the characteristics of the experimental group indicated that the mobile learning method was more efficient for students with low or medium performance than those with high initial performance on mathematics, highlighting that there is not any “ideal” method in the teaching of mathematics, however there are differentiation derived by inter-individual differences. Implications about the use of mobile learning in mathematics education are discussed, as the use of short term intervention programs cannot fulfil the goals of changing significantly the mathematical performance.
Highlights
The National Council of the Teachers of Mathematics, an organisation with decisions which influences the stakeholders in mathematics education worldwide, many years ago through the publication of mathematical standards underlined the necessity to use technology as a tool which can accelerate the development of mathematical thinking, in order to take advantage of the significant role it already has on students’ life (NCTM, 2000)
To evaluate the effectiveness of using the mobile devices for the teaching of a unit in geometry we have examined the differences on the students’ performance between the experimental and the control group
A descriptive statistical analysis was conducted for the examination of the respective means and standard deviations (Table 1). As it was expected the means for the experimental group (EG) during the post-test was higher than the respective mean of the control group (CG)
Summary
The National Council of the Teachers of Mathematics, an organisation with decisions which influences the stakeholders in mathematics education worldwide, many years ago through the publication of mathematical standards underlined the necessity to use technology as a tool which can accelerate the development of mathematical thinking, in order to take advantage of the significant role it already has on students’ life (NCTM, 2000). Mobile phones are part of daily student lives, both inside and outside the classroom [1] and are part of their informal education. Mobile technology has been recognized as one of the most important innovations that influenced teaching and learning [3] and there is an increased research interest on the introduction and implementation of mobile learning at the context of formal education [4]. Designing effective mobile learning interventions requires holistic understanding of how people use and view any type of technology [2]. The mobile devices have increasingly power and they transformed the ways people communicate and work with data of various forms, in the education context, mobiles are often seen as a threat to the “serious” work of school [8]
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