An Exploration of Female Emirati Students’ Experiences with the Use of Laptops in Mathematics Classrooms
Loading...
Files
Date
2011-04
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The British University in Dubai (BUiD)
Abstract
This study was designed to explore the students‟ experiences with laptops used in mathematics classrooms in a college at the United Arab Emirate, during the first year of laptop program implementation. The study aimed at investigating how laptops were utilized by both the students and teachers to learn mathematics, exploring the students‟ attitudes towards it, and capturing teachers‟ reflections on the experience. Specifically the research questions that guided the study are:
1. In what ways were the laptops utilized in mathematics classrooms during a period of two semesters (one year 2009-2010) by both the students and the teachers?
2. How did the students feel about using the laptops in learning mathematics?
3. How do the mathematics teachers evaluate using laptops by the students in their classes?
Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to collect data including: student questionnaires, teacher questionnaires, classroom observations, focus groups with students and interviews with the teachers. The sample of this study consisted of 58 female emirate students at the foundation level of a government funded college and their three mathematics teachers.
The findings of the present study reveal that despite of the reported benefits of using the laptops in mathematics classrooms; students were facing some difficulties in the first year of implementation of the laptop program and so developed negative attitudes towards the use of laptops to learn mathematics. Recommendations, based on the findings of the research, are suggested at the end of this paper and are addressed to both mathematics teachers and decision makers at the college for improvement of the program in the coming years.
Description
DISSERTATION WITH DISTINCTION
Keywords
laptops, one-to-one computing, mathematics learning, attitudes, ubiquitous computing, United Arab Emirates (UAE), teaching methodology