Classroom Observations of Middle School Students' Technology Use in Mathematics

Abstract

There have been many studies that have examined technology use in schools; most have relied on selfreport data from administrators, teachers, or students rather than on systematic classroom observations of technology use. The authors of the present study conducted systematic observations on 1,315 students from 220 middle school mathematics classrooms to examine the extent of technology use and whether there were gender, ethnic, or grade‐level differences related to the extent of students' use of technology. The descriptive results indicate that students used calculators about 25 percent of the time and computers less than 1 percent of the time in their mathematics classes. The multivariate analysis of variance results indicated no sex‐ or ethnicity‐related differences among students on their use of technology. Seventh grade students, however, were found to use calculators significantly more than sixth and eighth grade students.

Equity Issues Affecting Mathematics Learning Using Ict

“…Similarly, in the US, data from three national surveys showed that only half of the teachers who had access to computers used them in their lessons (Smerdon et al, 2000). Moreover, although 98% of the 220 middle schools studied by Huang and Waxman (1996) had computers and calculators available, students actually used calculators in mathematics classes only 25% of the time and computers less than 1% of the time. (As this study, unusually, used actual classroom observations, its findings are compelling.)…”

Re-Examining the Socioeconomic Factors Affecting Technology Use in Mathematics Classroom Practices

“…Over the past 15 years a considerable amount of research has been devoted to sociocultural disparity in technology availability and use in the mathematics (Becker, 2000;Garofalo et al, 2000;Means et al, 2001;Manoucherhri, 1999;National Center for Educational Statistics, 2004;Owens, 1993;Owens & Waxman, 1994, 1995 U.S. Department of Education, 2001;Huang & Waxman, 1996). Past studies conducted by Becker (2001) and Coley, Cradler, and Engel (1997) found students from higher income families have been found to use computers in school and in their homes more frequently than students from lower-income families.…”