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

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.

Prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study among Palestinian students (10–18 years)

“…According to the study of Bodrud-Doza [ 53 ], McKee and Stuckler [ 54 ], Pak et al [ 55 ] and Qin et al [ 56 ], the pandemic have a significant influence on the country's economy and individuals, in addition to the public health crisis. Many Palestinian families lost their source of income due to lockdown policy as a result of the widespread of the COVID-19 pandemic [ 3 ], therefore students may be concerned about paying their tuition fees [ 57 – 60 ] or inability to continuing their distance learning due to the lack of electronic resources such as internet, mobile phone, tablet [ 29 ].…”

“…In the Gaza Strip, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MOEHE) has implemented closing all schools to control the widespread of COVID-19 and avoid the large scale of infection among school students. During the closing of schools, students were instructed to complete their learning through digital platforms [ 29 ] and adopt preventive measures such as staying home, wearing gloves and face masks, regularly washing hands, and avoiding public places and gatherings.…”

“…Students around the world are also experiencing distress due to unlimited periods of school closure, the uncertainty of examinations, ability to work, and with respect to the availability of internet services and using digital platforms, etc. For instance, a student who is unable to access lessons online would be more distressed than others who easily access internet services and engage in lectures and lessons [ 3 , 29 , 30 ].…”

Challenges and Opportunities: Experiences of Mathematics Lecturers Engaged in Emergency Remote Teaching during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Reports on mathematics support during the initial university closures detail the greatly reduced numbers of students availing of services of this kind [6,7], which is an issue of concern. Others have focused on preservice mathematics teachers, looking at how they made the transition to using digital resources for mathematics [8,9], while more considered the teaching of specific subject areas [10,11] or age-groups [12,13]. More generally, some have researched specifically what mathematics educators in institutes of higher education can learn from their experience of these times [14].…”

Exploring the students’ adversity quotient in online mathematics learning during the Covid-19 pandemic

“…Even worse, if the teacher only gives assignments and materials without any explanation the students will eventually find difficulties. The obstacles found during online learning include problems with the mobile phone signals, limited internet quotas, and inadequate electricity supply (Sumarna, Kansil & Hamid, 2020;Mulenga & Marbán, 2020;Marbán, Radwan, Radwan, & Radwan, 2021). These obstacles certainly "forces" students to overcome them.…”