Elsevier

Computers & Education

Volume 121, June 2018, Pages 30-58
Computers & Education

Mobile learning for science and mathematics school education: A systematic review of empirical evidence

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.02.006Get rights and content

Highlights

  • This article presents analysis of m-Learning apps for science and math education.

  • We have followed standard guidelines of Systematic Literature Review.

  • The review has resulted in 49 studies (60 papers) published during 2003–2016.

  • The review has highlighted gaps in existing literature on the topic.

  • Some noteworthy observations in the analysis are found for future research.

Abstract

The ubiquity, flexibility, ease of access and diverse capabilities of mobile technologies make them valuable and a necessity in current times. However, they are under-utilized assets in mathematics and science school education. This article analyses the high quality empirical evidence on mobile learning in secondary school science and mathematics education. Our study employed a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) using well-accepted and robust guidelines. The SLR resulted in the detailed analysis of 49 studies (60 papers) published during 2003–2016. Content and thematic analyses were used to ascertain pedagogical approaches, methodological designs, foci, and intended and achieved outcomes of the studies. The apps and technologies used in these studies were further classified for domain, type and context of use. The review has highlighted gaps in existing literature on the topic and has provided insights that have implications for future research.

Introduction

The proliferation of mobile technologies is a commonly observed phenomenon around the globe as the number of mobile subscriptions has shown an exponential growth (Tsinakos, 2013). The availability of smart phones at affordable prices has led to an increase in the use of applications (apps) for various aspects of life such as communication, travelling, entertainment, productivity and learning. In the last decade, a significant number of initiatives have been launched that aim to utilise mobile technologies and apps for educational purposes (Kearney, Burden, & Rai, 2015).

School education is being exhorted to build a creative, well-informed, digitally capable society with flexible knowledge and skills (Ainley, 2010; Sharples et al., 2016). However, there is a disjunction between such exhortations and actual practice in schools. It is clear that while trials in schools demonstrate benefits in utilising learning technologies such as mobile devices, their widespread effective application in schools has not been realized (Milrad et al., 2013, pp. 95–108; Rushby, 2012; Selwyn, 2010). Numerous barriers and challenges have been identified, for example, lack of resources due to financial limitations, lack of effective educational policies for mobile learning (m-Learning), lack of human resources and skilled personnel for effective implementation of mobile pedagogies, lack of hardware resources such as infrastructure and bandwidth, and reservations of parents due to the perceptions of health and psychological issues associated with the prolonged use of mobile devices by students (Tsinakos, 2013; Yu, Lee, & Ewing, 2014). Other challenges include changing teachers' pedagogical beliefs (Ertmer & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010); lack of trained educators (Cheon, Lee, Crooks, & Song, 2012; Crompton, Olszewski, & Bielefeldt, 2016; Milrad et al., 2013, pp. 95–108) and a lack of pre-service and in-service teacher education in mobile pedagogies (Goktas, Yildirim, & Yildirim, 2009).

Further, adoption of mobile technologies in school education is occurring without an empirical understanding of the complex, dynamic relationship between these technologies and the epistemological and pedagogical systems that underpin teaching and learning. It is important to have a thorough understanding of the effectiveness of the mobile technology use in education before mandating m-Learning in educational policies and practices. The research community bears the responsibility for conducting high quality research to provide evidence for the effectiveness of m-Learning pedagogies.

Concurrently with the imperative to better understand the use of mobile devices for learning, there is strong political will in many countries to improve teaching and learning in mathematics and science education to underpin innovation driving economic growth and to build the capability of tomorrow's workforce for future job markets (e.g. Office of the Chief Scientist, 20141). One problem experienced in the education research community is that numerous small-scale studies are conducted but the findings of these studies are not aggregated and synthesized to guide further work. It is important to learn from previous studies that have been conducted in this area, as existing empirical evidence can help educators and policy-makers in making more informed decisions. This article responds to this need by providing an analysis of the empirical research that has occurred on m-learning in mathematics and science. This analysis comprised a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) that is a component of a three-year Australian government funded research project aiming to optimise the use of mobile learning in mathematics and science in secondary schools.

In contrast to the traditional literature reviews where researchers often use ad hoc literature selection, Systematic Literature Reviews are a methodical, rigorous and transparent way to search, select, extract and synthesise the information from published empirical evidence on a topic of interest in order to answer research questions. SLRs provide high quality scientific (empirical) evidence on a specific topic. The aim of an SLR is to be as unbiased as possible, auditable, and repeatable for other researchers. SLRs are a well-established tool of the evidence based paradigm that has gained increasing credibility in many research disciplines in recent years such as medicine, engineering, social sciences and education.

Our SLR is based on the following three research questions regarding studies of m-learning in secondary school science and mathematics education:

  • RQ1: What are the reported research methodologies, foci and outcomes in existing literature?

  • RQ2: What mobile technologies and/or apps are investigated in these studies?

  • RQ3: What are the pedagogical approaches being reported? What are the contextual settings under which these technologies are investigated?

This article is structured as follows: section 2 provides background and an overview of the existing reviews relevant to the topic. Section 3 details the SLR planning and execution. Section 4 describes the results of analysis. Section 5 discusses the results and section 6 provides conclusions and suggestions for future research.

Section snippets

Background

This paper focuses on the use of mobile devices and apps for learning in mathematics and science. One reason for the focus on these two disciplines is that the current article reports on a component of a funded research project conducted by the authors, which investigates ways in which learning in mathematics and science can be optimised through the use of mobile technologies. Mathematics and science teaching and learning are currently strong government priority areas in Australia and many

Systematic review method and execution

The primary focus of studies in this review is mathematics or science learning/teaching with mobile apps/technologies. We conducted a systematic review by following the guidelines of the Evidence Based paradigm (Budgen & Brereton, 2006; Dwan et al., 2013). An SLR follows a rigorous and scrupulous procedure to search and select the sample studies for coding and analysis. It is a methodical and meticulous process of collecting and collating the published empirical studies of acceptable quality

Results

Our systematic review resulted in 49 studies (60 papers). In this section we present the results from data synthesis and analysis.

Discussion

The discussion elaborates on the findings by grouping identified pedagogies according to their underlying theoretical frameworks. Three overarching pedagogical approaches are discussed, with particular reference to the discipline areas of mathematics and science, given these were the focus of the SLR. We then examine the relationship between mobile learning and these pedagogies. The discussion goes on to articulate the strengths and weaknesses of the reported methodologies in the SLR. We

Conclusion

In this paper we have presented the results from the analysis of 49 empirical studies (60 papers) published from 2003 to 2016 that focused on investigating mathematics or science learning and teaching with mobile apps and technologies in secondary school education. The SLR was conducted with the aim of providing insights into the nature of recent research that has been implemented using mobile learning in secondary school science and mathematics. Such insights are valuable in suggesting new

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support provided by the Australian Research Council Discovery Project “Optimising Mobile Intensive Pedagogies - an ARC Discovery project for Quality Teaching and Learning, ARC-DP 150101214”.

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