Selection of Apps for Teaching Difficult Mathematics Topics: An Instrument to Evaluate Touch-Screen Tablet and Smartphone Mathematics Apps

Abstract

Manipulatives-including the more recent touch-screen mobile device apps-belong to a broader network of learning tools. As teachers continue to search for learning materials that aid children to think mathematically, they are faced with a challenge of how to select materials that meet the needs of students. The profusion of virtual learning tools available via the Internet magnifies this challenge. What criteria could teachers use when choosing useful manipulatives? In this chapter, we share an evaluation instrument for teachers to use to evaluate apps. The dimensions of the instrument include: (a) the nature of the curriculum addressed in the app-emergent, adaptable or prescriptive, and relevance to current, high quality curricula-high, medium, low; (b) degree of actions and interactions afforded by the app as a learning tool-constructive, manipulable, or instructive interface; (c) the level of interactivity and range of options offered to the usermultiple or mono, or high, moderate or low; and, (d) the quality of the design features and graphics in the app-rich, high quality or impoverished, poor quality. Using these dimensions, researchers rated the apps on a three-level scale: Levels I, II, and III. Few apps were classified as Level III apps on selected dimensions. This evaluation instrument guides teachers when selecting apps. As well, the evaluation instrument guides developers in going beyond apps that are overly prescriptive, that focus on quizzes, that are text based, and include only surface aspects of using multi-modality in learning, to apps that are more aligned with emergent curricula, that focus also on conceptual understanding, and that utilize multiple, interactive representations of mathematics concepts.

Investigation of educational mathematics mobile applications (EMMAs) with multi-criteria decision-making methods: A TOPSIS algorithm implementation

“…Unlike some studies in literature (e.g., Namukasa et al, 2016, Harrison & Lee, 2018, in this study, the 13 EMMAs were not selected from a specific math subject or learning area. However, it can be thought that teachers may also need evaluation and selection recommendations for specific subject areas that students have difficulty in learning.…”

Magic Forms and The Mathematical Creative Thinking Ability of Secondary School Students

“…Manipulative media (materials) function to simplify difficult or difficult concepts, present relatively abstract material, to make it more real, explain meaning or concepts more concretely, explain certain properties related to calculating and the properties of geometric shapes. (Namukasa et al, 2009;Tran et al, 2017). Several studies state that manipulative media is an effort to improve students' creative mathematical thinking abilities (Listrianti et al, 2022;Palupi, 2021).…”

Real-world problems through computational thinking tools and concepts: the case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

“…Examples of these artefacts of the pandemic include: a simulation published by Stevens (2020) and translated in 12 languages; a video illustration of exponential growth by Sanderson [3blue1brown] (2020), in which he explains the probability of infection (transmission), R , and the effectiveness of responses that lower this rate and a graphical illustration on flattening the curve of the spread of the disease [1], which when tweeted by former President Barack Obama was retweeted over 180, 000 times (Barclay and Scott, 2020; Obama, 2020). Whereas certain simulations and graphs only visually illustrate the dynamics of the disease spread, its containment measures and the different possible scenarios, which are dependent on how countries responded, a few others, such as the one by Simler (2020) are interactive simulations that offer manipulable and modifiable interfaces (Namukasa et al ., 2016). Simler (2020) explains that the model he offered included: playable simulations of a disease outbreak.…”