Primary and Secondary Students’ Usage of Digital Platforms for Mathematics Learning during the COVID-19 Outbreak: The Case of the Gaza Strip

José M. Marbán, Eqbal Radwan, Afnan Radwan and Walaa Radwan
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José M. Marbán: Department of Didactics of Experimental, Social and Mathematical Sciences, University of Valladolid, 47011 Valladolid, Spain
Eqbal Radwan: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Islamic University of Gaza, Gaza Strip 79702, Palestine
Afnan Radwan: Faculty of Education, Islamic University of Gaza, Gaza Strip 79702, Palestine
Walaa Radwan: Faculty of Education, Ummah Open University, Gaza Strip 79702, Palestine

Mathematics, 2021, vol. 9, issue 2, 1-21

Abstract: During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital learning has reshaped mathematics education in different ways. In particular, different social media platforms have acquired an unforeseen prominence as a way to enhance mathematics learning and to model somehow the face-to-face classroom interactions abruptly interrupted. How primary and secondary students have reacted or responded to these changes in the initial learning conditions is the main aim of this study. With this purpose in mind data was collected from 3179 students from the Gaza Strip by means of a validated rating scale and then a cluster analysis approach was applied that revealed the existence of three clusters. K-means cluster analysis was applied to analyze data as an exploratory approach to identify structures within the data. Also, chi-square was applied to identify differences between the clusters with regard to demographic characteristics. Regarding the grouping of participants in clusters the analysis performed lead to the identification of three clusters: Cluster 1, 2 and 3 had 2001, 824 and 354 cases, respectively. These clusters were grouped depending on employ social media platforms used by the students to reinforcement their mathematics learning. Participants in Cluster 3 exhibited the highest proficiency in the usage of social media for mathematics learning as compared to those in Cluster 1 and Cluster 2. This means that students in cluster 1 are more likely to exhibit negative attitudes and low levels in the skills related to using digital technology and the employment of social media in mathematics learning. The results showed that there were no significant differences between cluster-groups with regard to gender, age, and type of school. In contrast, significant differences were found among the three clusters with regards to the educational level of parents and the economic status of the family. However, the overall results show that digital learning is considered a positive response to the school closure in the time of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Keywords: COVID-19; digital learning; social media platforms; mathematics learning; Gaza Strip; Palestine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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