In-service and Pre-service Middle School Mathematics Teachers' Attitudes and Decisions Regarding Teaching Mathematics Using Mobile Phones

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.