Using tablet PC in the teaching and learning of secondary mathematics: A case of a girl's class in Mauritius

Tablet PCs have been distributed to a group of students and teachers in secondary schools of Mauritius with the aims to improve academic performance and facilitate a paradigm shift in teaching. The usefulness of these tablets as pedagogical tools in a girl's mathematics class was explored in this study. Videos were uploaded in each student's tablet and used in offline mode in heterogeneous grouping. Responses to questionnaires and from focus group discussions revealed that students found the tablets useful for learning mathematics and easy to use. Most students reported that the ability to review the video contents at their own pace assisted conceptual understanding and problem solving. However, the tablets did not make them accomplish more work than otherwise would have been possible. Due to teacher dependence, the students did not develop adequate self-confidence in using the tablets in isolation for learning mathematics. This study, notwithstanding, confirms that both teacher-student and student-student interactions were significantly ameliorated using the tablet PCs.