Student perspectives of Web-based mathematics

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Abstract

This paper presents the results of a survey conducted with students (N = 97) whose teachers have used the Web in their mathematics classes. Their responses to the use of the Internet for learning mathematics are reported here Factor analyses were used to determine the constructs that underlie the survey. These constructs were found to be ‘Valuation of the Internet as a tool for learning mathematics’ and ‘Emotive response to the Internet’. Possible reasons were given for students’ responses in these constructs. Interview findings were used to support and lend insight into the results.

Highlights

► Survey with students (N = 97) who have used the Web in their mathematics classes. ► Factor analyses were conducted and two constructs were found – ‘Valuation of the Internet as a tool for learning mathematics’ and ‘Emotive response to the Internet’. ► About 30% students have high valuation of the Internet as a tool for learning mathematics and 62% have high positive emotive response to the Internet. ► Possible reasons given for students’ responses in these constructs.

Introduction

The number of students choosing to continue mathematics to advanced levels has been decreasing especially in countries where mathematics is not a compulsory subject after a certain age (see Brown, 2009, NCCA, 2005). “[U]nfortunately many potential university students of mathematics restrict their education and career options by discontinuing their mathematical training in their high schools” (Maqsud & Khalique, 1991, p. 377). This is a worrying trend as this decrease will ultimately impact on many sectors of the workforce such as engineering, science, statistics, education and economics. This issue of retention of students in mathematics at higher levels needs to be addressed. Despite many initiatives aimed at improving students’ retention rates in mathematics the problem continues to persist (NCCA, 2005).

Smith, Sansone and White (2007) claim that motivation is closely related to long-term persistence in any educational domain and future engagement in that domain. This suggests that when one is involved, engaged and motivated in a particular activity, such as mathematics, there is a high possibility of continuing with it. Numerous studies have shown the correlation between disengagement in school and early drop outs (Ferguson et al., 2005, Janosz et al., 2008, Smyth, 2007). One of the consistent reasons for students’ disengagement and dropout is the quality of teaching. For example, one student said:

Like Maths. Instead of teaching the class he would actually, like, write up on the board and as he was writing he would be talking to the board and teaching the board and we’d be sitting there, like, yeah okay, and you’ll go through it and the next thing you know you’re lost and …too late, he keeps going so you just, oh. So that's when you start talking to your friends because he's actually, like, talking to the board. He's got no eye contact with you so you just lose him and then if you don’t understand a problem you put your hand up and he can’t see you so he just keeps going so you miss that part, miss that part, you just give up. You just don’t worry about it… (Smyth, 2007, p. 644).

The answer to increasing student engagement in mathematics might lie in capitalising on the increasing attraction and involvement of young people in virtual interactivities and communications. The World Wide Web makes available a myriad of resources to engage students in mathematical learning. Web pages are linked to one another via hyperlinks and can contain text, graphics, sounds and videos. The current improved version of the Web (often called Web 2.0) allows for collaboration using file formats that facilitate interaction. Small Java programs (called ‘Applets’) and JavaScript, both programming languages, enable static Web pages to include functions such as animations, calculators, and other fancy tricks.

This paper draws on the findings of a survey and interviews conducted with students after class observations of student use of the Web in mathematics classes. It seeks to highlight students’ views of the use of the Web in learning mathematics. In this paper, our main concern will be the study of students’ epistemological beliefs about the use the Web in learning mathematics. Our research questions are: (a) What do students feel when they use the Web to learn mathematics? (b) How do students regard the use of the Web in mathematics learning? Factor analyses were used to determine the constructs that underlie the survey. Interview findings lend further insights into students’ perspectives. The paper begins with a discussion of the relevant literature followed by details of the project and finishes with a discussion of the ways the Web may hold solutions to student engagement in mathematics.

Section snippets

Theoretical perspective

A learner's epistemological beliefs, that is, their views about the nature of knowledge and learning, may affect their learning approaches, reasoning modes and decisions when processing or acquiring information (Hofer, 2001, Hofer and Pintrich, 1997). In mathematics education McLeod (1992) refers to an individual's mathematics-related belief system, as: beliefs about mathematics; beliefs about oneself within mathematics, beliefs about mathematics teaching; and beliefs about contexts in which

Methods

The Internet is a vast collection of inter-connected networks that uses TCP/IP protocols. These protocols or languages support (SMTP), instant messaging, the World Wide Web (HTTP & HTML), news groups and file transfers (FTP). The Web is only a part of the Internet albeit an enormous part. Clearly there are differences between the Web and the Internet but in this paper they have been used interchangeably except where the context suggests otherwise.

Four teachers and their classes were observed as

Students’ response to the use of the Internet for learning mathematics

Cronbach alpha internal reliability for the ten items pertaining to students’ perceptions of the use of the Internet in mathematics education was 0.92. A Principal Component factor analysis was conducted on these items for all years (N = 97). To get a simple structure, both orthogonal (Varimax) and oblique (Direct Oblimin) rotations were initially carried out but the oblique rotation gave a better simple structure and so was consequently used (as suggested by Kline (1994) cited in Foster, 1998,

Conclusion

As an alternative resource for teaching mathematics, these findings do point to the potential of the Internet to motivate students. Interactive Web objects that animate or can be virtually manipulated, and provide feedback to students have the potential to engage and motivate students better than Web pages of data or information. However animations and the interactive nature of a Web object does not necessary guarantee learning and comprehension among students. Teachers will still have to

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