The Use of the Interactive Whiteboard in Mathematics and Mathematics Lessons from the Perspective of Turkish Middle School Students

Abstract

It is a great paradox that despite the great importance attached to mathematics education in Turkey, high failure rates are observed among Turkish students in mathematics. For this reason, new applications are implemented in the field of mathematics education in Turkey. One of these applications is the use of technology in mathematics education. Thus, this research aimed to determine the attitudes and opinions of the middle school students towards the use of the interactive whiteboard, which is among the technologies used in mathematics and mathematics lessons. The research is based on a mixed-method research design in which both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. The quantitative part of the study was conducted with 726 students, selected via the convenience sampling method, in 4 different central schools affiliated to the Ministry of Education (MNE) in the Karabük province during the 2015-2016 academic year, while the qualitative part was carried out with 20 participants determined on a voluntary basis. The research data were obtained from the “Attitude Scale towards Mathematics”, the “Interactive Whiteboard Attitude Scale” and the semi-structured interviews. It was found that the participants in the survey had a positive attitude towards the use of the interactive whiteboard in mathematics lessons and that they were positively affected by the interactive whiteboard in learning mathematics. In addition, it was concluded that participants' attitudes towards mathematics and the use of the interactive whiteboard was above average. It was also found that the male students’ attitudes towards the interactive whiteboard were more positive than that of the female students, and the level of positive attitude towards mathematics decreases as the class level increases accordingly. Finally, a low positive correlation was found between students' attitudes towards mathematics and the interactive whiteboard.