Cognitive and psychosocial effects of persuasive technology use on mathematics instruction

The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of different instructional interventions on students? mathematics achievement, attitudes towards the use of search engines as an information retrieval tool, and their self-efficacy regarding Educational internet use. The study was implemented in Spring 2013. Participants were 105 sophomore students who were enrolled in the Program of Elementary School Mathematics Education at the Department of Primary Education at Eskişehir Osmangazi University. The experimental design was conducted in Calculus II, a compulsory course with seven credits. Within the scope of the experimental intervention, the web-based education group (WBE) was provided with activities on the semantic search engine called ?Wolfram Alpha?. For the first control group (CAS) which was exposed to the CAS-based instruction, Mathematica was used. Finally, the instructor used linear web pages within the second control group (WSE), which was exposed to web supported instructor-led training. The instruments were a semi-structured interview form, Calculus II Achievement Test (ABT), Attitude Scale Related to the Use of Search Engines as an Information Retrieval Tool (AMT) and Self-Efficacy Scale Related to Educational Internet Use (EIKO). The study was conducted as a 3 (intervention) x 2(time) factorial design. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used. The quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, univariate and multivariate analysis of variance, t-tests and Pearson correlation. The qualitative data were analyzed through descriptive analysis. Findings revealed that the main effect of time, the main effect of intervention and the interaction effect of intervention by time led to a significant difference between students? achievement scores. Average ABT scores for the WBE group were significantly higher than that of both the CAS group (p<.017) and the WSE group (p<.01). However, there was no significant difference between the scores of the CAS and other groups. The scores of all groups increased significantly at the post-test. Besides, as the interaction effect of intervention by time revealed a significant value, a number of follow-up analyses were conducted. According to the follow-up analyses for the ABT, the main effect for the intervention and the interaction effect for the intervention by time were statistically significant. However, other dependent variables did not show the interaction effect. In this regard, second order follow-up analyses were conducted for the ABT. The analysis revealed that the posttest scores of all groups were significantly higher than the pretest scores. The positive increase in the scores was weakest in the WSE group. On the other hand, there was no significant difference between pretest scores in terms of intervention type. There was not a significant correlation between the academic achievement and self-efficacy regarding educational internet use. Partial correlation analyses were conducted through controlling for the pretest scores of the dependent variables and the attitude towards the use of search engines as an information retrieval tool. The control procedure increased the correlation; however, it was not significant after the procedure. The qualitative data revealed both positive and negative themes. Findings revealed that participants thought positively about the interventions. In the WBE group, the participants responded positively about the search behaviour since it could provide a multifaceted search. However, they still needed to examine the graphing features in detail. In the CAS group, the participants thought that applying the software commands was good for examining the basic graphing steps. However, they reacted negatively when they could not find the source of the error after applying a wrong command. Participants further made positive remarks about web supported instructor-led training as they thought it enhanced learning through providing interactive images in multivariable functions. On the other hand, since the user interfaces of the platforms were English, some words looked unfamiliar to the participants. The study concluded with a number of suggestions regarding future research and implementations Keywords: Web based education, persuasive technology, computer algebra systems, web supported instruction.