SWEDISH PRIMARY AND PREPRIMARY STUDENT TEACHERS' VIEWS OF USING DIGITAL TOOLS IN PREPRIMARY MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
Publication details
| Year: | 2018 |
| DOI: | 10.5507/jtie.2018.007 |
| Issued: | 2018 |
| Language: | English |
| Volume: | 10 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Start Page: | 16 |
| End Page: | 23 |
| Editors: | |
| Authors: | Tossavainen T.; Johansson M.; Faarinen E.; Klisinska A.; Tossavainen A. |
| Type: | Journal article |
| Journal: | Journal of Technology and Information |
| Publisher: | Palacky University Olomouc |
| Topics: | Learning; Internet usage, practices and engagement; Other |
| Sample: | "The study was implemented at a Swedish university with three groups of students who were in the beginning of their university studies and had not taken any mathematics courses in their university program. The first group consists of 27 preprimary student teachers, the second one of 42 lower primary (Swedish grades F-3) student teachers and the third group of 25 upper primary (Swedish grades 4-6) student teachers." (Authors, 19) |
| Implications For Educators About: | STEM Education; Professional development; Other |
| Implications For Policy Makers About: | Other |
| Other PolicyMaker Implication: | Digitalization of preprimary education |
| Implications For Stakeholders About: | Researchers |
Abstract
Our study surveys Swedish primary and preprimary student teachers' (n=94) views of content and methods of mathematics education in preschool and, especially, of using digital tools in preprimary mathematics education. The views related to digital tools turned out to be clearly positive in general. Students who are strongly for using digital tools are also more sure in saying that mathematics education in preschool should be fun. However, they agree less with the claims such as mathematics lessons should be structured, or that the responsibility for the mathematics education of small children belongs mainly to their parents. Those students who were quite strongly for using digital tools agreed less with the claim that mathematics is one of the most important areas of preprimary education. The willingness to take responsibility for children's mathematical education from the parents was the most significant single factor to explain the participants' opinions about using digital tools.
Outcome
"...a remarkable finding in this study is that prospective primary and preprimary teachers indeed have a quite strongly positive relation to using digital tools in preprimary mathematics education.... A second significant finding is that those students who are especially strongly favourable for using digital tools have slightly different views of mathematics and the importance of mathematics than those students who are not so strongly for using ICT in preprimary mathematics education. They seem to prefer more entertaining and less structured methods in mathematics education and, for them, the importance of mathematics in preprimary education is a little lower than for other students.... Perhaps, the most surprising finding in this study was that the students who are strongly favourable for using digital tools were also more favourable for taking more responsibility (from parents) for children's learning of those mathematical skills that they need in school." (Authors, 22)