A Model for Teaching Geometry to Schoolchildren Using Smartphone App

Smartphones are popular among children of all age groups and have the potential to make learning process interactive as well as engaging. Educational smartphone apps for children should counterbalance the limited abilities of children. An iterative model for developing educational apps for schoolchildren has been proposed and substantiated by designing an app to teach about triangles in the present study. We conducted a pretest-posttest control group study. The app developed by us along with traditional methods was used to make 26 children in the experimental group aware of the concept and properties of triangles while the control group with equal number of children was taught about triangles using only chalk and blackboard. The performance of children in answering questions related to triangles was then assessed in the two groups. The study did not notice any significant difference in the performance of the children in the two groups. However, the feedback of the children in the experimental group was found to be positive in terms of the overall environment created by learning through the app in the classroom. Meticulously planned use of geometry apps may augment classroom teaching and stimulate children to be actively involved. Parents, practitioners and teachers need to be aware of the requirements of children and facilitate to provide conducive, age appropriate smartphone apps for learning geometry to them.