An Exploration of Learners’ Attitudes towards Mobile Learning Technology-Based Instruction Module and its Use in Mathematics Education

Muthandwa Chinamhora Sincuba; Merlin John

doi:10.29333/iejme/652

Full Text (PDF)

Muthandwa Chinamhora Sincuba, Merlin John

More Detail

Abstract

The study explored learners’ experiences with the mobile learning technology-based instruction module (MLTBIM) in learning Functions and related concepts. A sample of thirty-nine participants was purposefully drawn from the Grade 10 Mathematics classes in a selected historically disadvantaged rural senior secondary school. Adopting a case study research design, an attitude test was used in the collection of data. Microsoft Excel was used in presenting and analysing the data. The first finding of the study was that most respondents viewed the Mobile Learning Technology-Based application as very useful in the teaching and learning of Functions and related concepts. Secondly, most respondents upheld the view that Mobile Learning Technology-Based Instruction (MLTBI) was an effective method to learn Mathematics. Lastly, most of the respondents advocated that the application used in MLTBI enhanced their conceptual understanding of linear, quadratic and exponential functions. To conclude, the participants were convinced that cell phone devices and the Math4Mobile software were very useful and effective in the teaching and learning of Functions and related concepts regardless of the fact that there were some shortcomings involved.

Keywords

attitudes
mathematics education
functions
Mobile Learning Technology-Based Instruction

License

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

INT ELECT J MATH ED, Volume 12, Issue 3, October 2017, 845-858

https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/652

Publication date: 11 Dec 2017

Article Views: 4722

Article Downloads: 4745

Open Access References How to cite this article

References

Archer, S. (2006). Ideas for teaching science. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Attewell, J. (2005). Mobile technologies and learning: A technology update and m-learning project summary. Learning and Skills Development Agency: United Kingdom. http://www.m-learning.org/.
Babie, E.R. (2008). The Basics of Social Research. 4th ed. United States of America: Thomas Wadsworth publications.
Benta, K.I., Cremene, M. & Padurean, R. (2004). Multimedia m-learning using mobile phones. In Proceedings of MLEARN 2004: Mobile Learning anytime everywhere, 5-6 July 2004, pp. 27-28, Rome, Italy; London: Learning and Skills Development Agency.
Bernstein, A. (2011). Centre for Development and Enterprise Challenges the public education sector to form a social movement to improve education in South Africa. Mail & Guardian, 21 September, 25p.
Botha, A. (2007). Mobile education. Mail & Guardian Online. Retrieved from http://www.mg.co.za/article/2007-08-01-mobile-education.
Broadbooks, W.J., Elmore, P.B., Pedersen, K. & Bleyer, D.R. (1981). A Construct validation study of the Fennema- Sherman mathematics attitudes scale. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 41, 551-557.
Brodie K. (2004). Rethinking teachers’ mathematical knowledge: A focus on thinking practice. Perspectives in Education, 22(1), 65-80.
Burstein, L. (1992). The analysis of multi-level data in educational research and evaluation. Review of Research in Education. 8, 158-223.
Butgereit, L. (2009). Using text adventure games to entice learners to practice arithmetic skills over Mxit. In J. H. Meyer & A. Van Biljon (Eds.), Proceedings of the 15th Annual Congress of the Association of Mathematics Education of South Africa (Vol. 2, pp. 3-10). Bloemfontein: AMESA. Available at http://www.amesa.org.za/amesa2009/Proceedings.htm.
Chu, Y. & Liu, T. (2007). Handheld computer supported context-aware learning with 2D barcodes. In Proceedings of the Seventh IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, (ICALT 2007), 18-20 July 2007, 485-486, Niigata, Japan.
Conway-Smith, E. (2010). Teaching with cell phones. GlobalPost.http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/education/100720/south-africa-teaching-cell-phones?
Cook, J., Bradley, C., Lance, J., Smith, C. & Haynes, R. (2007). Generating learning contexts with mobile devices. Mobile learning: Towards a research agenda. WLE Centre Occasional Papers in Work-Based Learning, ed. Norbert Pachler, 55-74, London:WLE Centre. http://www.wlecentre.ac.uk/cms/files/occasionalpapers/mobilelearning_pachler2007.pdf
Department of Basic Education (2012). National Strategy for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in General and Further Education and Training. Pretoria: Government Printers.
Department of Basic Education (2013). National Senior Certificate: Technical Report. Pretoria: Government Printers.
Eastern Cape Department of Basic Education (2014). National Senior Certificate: Technical Report. Pretoria: Government Printers. www.ecdoe.gov.za
Faux, F., Mcfarlane, A., Roche, N. & Facer, K. (2006). Learning with handheld technologies: A handbook from Futurelab. Bristol, UK: Futurelab. http://www.futurelab.org.uk/research.
Federal Republic of Nigeria. (2004). National Policy on Education (Revised) NERC.
Glennie, J., Harley, K., Butcher, N. & Van Wyk, T. ( 2012). Open Educational Resources and change in Higher Education: Reflections from practice. British Colombia: Vancouver.
Hartnell-Young, E. & Heym, N. (2008). How mobile phones help learning in secondary schools? BECTA.http://research.becta.org.uk/index.php?catcode=_re_rp_02&rid=15482§ion=rh, [17 November 2013].
Howie, S. J. (2003). Language and other background factors affecting secondary pupils’ performance in Mathematics in South Africa. African Journal of research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 7, 1-20.
http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/brendan/mLearn2008.pdf,[30 November 2013].
Johnson, B. & Christensen, L. (2012). Educational Research. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed approaches, 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Kadirire, J. (2007). Instant messaging for creating interactive and collaboration m-Learning environments. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 2(8),1-14.
Kahn, M. J. (1994). Science and Mathematics education in the formal system: Science and technology education and training for economic development. Johannesburg: Centre for Education Policy Development.
Kalloo, V. & Mohan, P. (2012). MobileMath: an innovative solution to the problem of poor Mathematics performance in the Caribbean. Caribbean Teaching Scholar, 2(1), 5-18.
Khuzwayo, B., (2005). A history of Mathematics education research in South Africa: The apartheid years. Researching Mathematics education in South Africa: Perspectives, practices and possibilities, 234, 286p.
Kinsley, J. (2002). A four stage model of mathematical learning. The Mathematics Educator Journal, 12 (1), 11-16.
Koller, O., Baumert, J. & Schnabel, K. (2001). Does Interest Matter? The Relationship Between Academic Interest and Achievement in Mathematics. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 32 (5), 448-470.
Kriek, J. & Grayson, D. (2009). A Holistic Professional Development model for South African Physical Science teachers. South African Journal of Education, 29, 185-203.
Kumar, A., Tewari, A., Shroff, G., Chittamuru, D., Kam, M. & Canny, J. (2010). An Exploratory Study of Unsupervised Mobile Learning in Rural India. In CHI 2010, 10–15 April 2010, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Liebenberg, J. & Conway-Smith. (2008). Mobile Mathematics–lessons learned. In Proceedings of the mLearn 2008 Conference, The Bridge From Text To Context, 7-10 October 2008, 346p.UK.Ironbridge Gorge: Shropshire.
Lubega, J., McCrindle, R., Williams, S., Armitage, U. & Clements, I. (2004). Uses of mobile phones in higher education. In Cantoni and McLaughlin (eds) Proceedings of EDMEDIA 2004. Switzerland: Lugano.
Makgato M. & Mji, A. (2006). Factors associated with high school learners’ performance: A spotlight on mathematics and physical science. South African Journal of Education, 26(2), 253-266.
Manoucherhri, A. (1999). Computers and school mathematics reform: Implications for mathematics teacher education. Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching, 18(1), 31-48.
Maree, K., (2007). First steps in Research. 1st ed. Pretoria: Van Schaik publishers.
McMillan, J.H. & Schumacher, S. (2010). Research in education: Evidence-based inquiry. 7th ed. New York: Pearson.
MoMath, (2010). Mobile learning for Mathematics: Nokia project in South Africa Symbian tweet, http://www.symbiantweet.com/mobile-learning-for-Mathematics in South Africa, [20 February 2014]
Mulhern, F. & Rae, G. (1998). Development of shortened form of the Fennema-Sherman mathematics attitude scales. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 41, 551-557.
Nagaki, T., Kobayashi, Y. & Nakagawa, H. (2004). Attitude survey for pupils about using cellular phones in Classrooms. In Cantoni and McLaughlin (eds.) Proceedings of ED-MEDIA 2004, Switzerland: Lugano.
Naismith, L. & Corlett, D. (2006). Reflections on success: A retrospective of the mLearn conference series 2002-2005. Paper presented at mLearn 2006 - Across generations and cultures. Canada. Banff. http://hal.archivesouvertes.fr/docs/00/19/73/66/PDF/Naismith-Corlett-2006.pdf.
Ndafenongo, G. (2011). An investigation into how cell phones can be used in the teaching of Mathematics using Vitalmaths video clips: a case study of 2 schools in Grahamstown, South Africa. Thesis, Degree of Master of Education, Rhodes University (Faculty of Education), Grahamstown, South Africa.
Ornstein, A.C. (1990). Strategies for effective teaching. New York: McGraw-Hill Inc.
Peker, M. (2005).The relationship between learning styles and Mathematics achievement students’ acquiring primary Mathematics teacher education. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 5 (21), 200-210.
Project K-Nect. (2008). http://www.projectknect.org/Project%20K-Nect/Home.html http://www.cxc.org/examinations/exam-results-reports. [30 May 2014].
Retrieved from http://mlearningafrica.net/category/projects/
Saha, S. (2007). A study of Gender Attitude to Mathematics. Cognitive Style and Achievement in Mathematics. Experiments in Education 35(6).
Sharples, M. (2003). Disruptive devices: mobile technology for conversational learning. International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Lifelong Learning, 1(5& 6), 504-520.
Stead, G. (2005). Moving mobile into the mainstream. In Proceedings of mLearn: Mobile technology: The future of learning in your hands, 25-28 October 2005, South Africa, Cape Town, London: WLE Centre.
Sweeting, K. (2011). Early Years Teachers’ Attitudes in Mathematics. M.Ed Thesis. Queensland University of Technology. University of Haifa. http://construct.haifa.ac.il.
Vahey, P. & Crawford, V. (2003). Learning with handhelds: Findings from classroom research. http://makingsens.stanford.edu/pubs/LearningFromHandhelds.pdf. [15 May 2014].
Vosloo, S. & Botha, A. (2009). Mobile learning: South African examples. Paper presented at the Mobile Learning Institute Summit. Lusaka, Zambia. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/stevevosloo/mobilelearning-south-african-examples.
Vosloo, S. (2007). MOBITM.
Vosloo, S. (2008). M4Girls. Retrieved from http://mlearningafrica.net/category/projects/
Vosloo, S. (2009). ImfundoYami/ImfundoYethu: Mobile learning for Mathematics. Retrieved from http://mlearningafrica.net/category/projects/
Wilson, P. (2008). Promoting positive attitudes. Retrieved November 10, 2015 from Electronic Resources Information Centre (ERIC) database (ERIC Document No EJ815090).
Xia, X., Lu, C. & Wang, B. (2008). Research on Mathematics Instruction Experiment Based Problem Posing, Journal of Mathematics Education, 1(1),153-163.
Yerushalmy, M. & Weizman, A. (2007). Math4Mobile mobile environments. The University of Haifa. http://www.math4mobile.com/[12 February 2014].
Yerushalmy, M. (2007). Math4Mobile mobile environments. The University of Haifa. http://www.math4mobile.com/ [12 February 2014]

How to cite this article

APA

Sincuba, M. C., & John, M. (2017). An Exploration of Learners’ Attitudes towards Mobile Learning Technology-Based Instruction Module and its Use in Mathematics Education. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 12(3), 845-858. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/652

Vancouver

Sincuba MC, John M. An Exploration of Learners’ Attitudes towards Mobile Learning Technology-Based Instruction Module and its Use in Mathematics Education. INT ELECT J MATH ED. 2017;12(3):845-58. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/652

AMA

Sincuba MC, John M. An Exploration of Learners’ Attitudes towards Mobile Learning Technology-Based Instruction Module and its Use in Mathematics Education. INT ELECT J MATH ED. 2017;12(3), 845-858. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/652

Chicago

Sincuba, Muthandwa Chinamhora, and Merlin John. "An Exploration of Learners’ Attitudes towards Mobile Learning Technology-Based Instruction Module and its Use in Mathematics Education". International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education 2017 12 no. 3 (2017): 845-858. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/652

Harvard

Sincuba, M. C., and John, M. (2017). An Exploration of Learners’ Attitudes towards Mobile Learning Technology-Based Instruction Module and its Use in Mathematics Education. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 12(3), pp. 845-858. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/652

MLA

Sincuba, Muthandwa Chinamhora et al. "An Exploration of Learners’ Attitudes towards Mobile Learning Technology-Based Instruction Module and its Use in Mathematics Education". International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, vol. 12, no. 3, 2017, pp. 845-858. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/652