Use some applications on mobile phones supporting Grade-12 students in self-studying mathematics

USE SOME APPLICATIONS ON MOBILE PHONES SUPPORTING GRADE-12 STUDENTS IN SELF-STUDYING MATHEMATICS Trinh Thi Phuong Thao1 Trung Tran2 Hai Trinh Thanh3 Abstract From 2019, the Ministry of Education and Training in Vietnam will launch a new general education program. The focus of this program is emphasized with contents of developing the core capacity for students, which are the general capacity (including self-control, autodidacticism, communications and co-operation, problem solving and creation) and special capacity, through different educational methods such as differentiated teaching, integrative teaching and activity-via teaching. In addition, mobile phones are becoming a vital part daily life of almost students and teachers in the era of the Industrial Revolution 4.0. With the support of mobile devices capable of accessing the Internet, the mobile learning method has been formed: M-learning. Based on the findings of the thesis which investigated some applications on mobile phones supporting grade-12 students in self-studying Mathematics, this paper presents a number of self-study solutions for students with the support of M-learning towards developing students’ self-learning ability. Keywords: Mobile learning; Self-study capacity; mathematics. 1. Introduction The perspective of integrated teaching is an orientation in fundamental and comprehensive innovation of education, which is a move from an approach to educational content to an approach to training people with new, dynamic and creative knowledge when solving problems in real life. The purpose of integrated teaching is to form and develop learners’ competencies. Participants in integration are the type of knowledge or components of the teaching process. The content of teaching in view of capacity development is not 1 Thai Nguyen University of Education, Vietnam; Email: Trinhphuongthao@dhsptn.edu.vn; ORCId: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6277-4907. 2 Vietnam Academy for Ethnic Minorities, Vietnam; Email: trungt1978@gmail.com; ORCId: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0459-7284. 3 Thai Nguyen University of Sciences, Vietnam; Email: trinhthanhhai@tnus.edu.vn. 317Phần 2: ỨNG DỤNG CÔNG NGHỆ TRONG GIÁO DỤC only limited to knowledge and professional skills but also content groups to develop competencies such as professional capacity, method capacity and social capacity With the rapid development of information and communication technology (ICT), there have been a number of researches on ICT application in teaching in general and self- learning in particular; of which electronic computers are used as a useful tool. Nowadays, Mobile phones have become an essential part of young people’s life. Therefore, many educators have attempted to make good use of these devices for improving students’ learning experience, creating a new trend in education called mobile learning or M-learning. M-Learning, which means learning through mobile devices (such as smart mobile phones and tablet PCs), is changing the educational environment by offering learners the opportunity to engage in asynchronous, ubiquitous instruction (Hyman et al., 2014). M-learning is a teaching method that has the intersection between mobile computing and e-learning (Quinn, 2000; Keengwe, 2014) that integrates several software and firmware technology in multimedia applications which facilitate learning through a variety of wireless mobile devices (Kukulska-Hulme, 2005) using wireless networks (WiFi) or broadband services without limit in terms of location or time. (Kukulska-Hulme, 2005; Quinn, 2000). Furthermore, Keegan (2002) contemplates the possibility of M-Learning as a harbinger of the future of learning Using M-learning in self-study allow self-study to take place anytime, anywhere. On the other hand, if using mobile phones, the interaction between teachers and students, among students will be richer, more diverse and friendly because the mobile phone is easy to carry around when moving. Therefore, it is necessary to exploit some functions of mobile phones - a very popular portable digital device in developing the capacity of self-studying-Mathematics for grade 12 students at high schools. The content of the article will address this issue. 2. Self-study competence in Mathematics 2.1. The concept of self-study competence in Mathematics Capacity is an important attribute of personality. Currently, the concept of capacity is given by psychologists in many different approaches. However, it can be seen that there is a common point in the approaches: Capacity is the ability to perform a certain type of human activity and the capacity is formed, developed and observable in the process of human settlement of the requirements set forth. With the above concept, we can conceive of self-study competence as psychological attributes to ensure success for each individual’s self-study. According to experts, self-study capacity is expressed through the fact that the subject determines him-self in self-learning motivation in a right way, he is able to manage its own learning, has positive attitude in activities to work on his own, to adjust learning activities 318 KỶ YẾU HỘI THẢO QUỐC TẾ LẦN THỨ NHẤT VỀ ĐỔI MỚI ĐÀO TẠO GIÁO VIÊN and evaluate his own learning outcomes so that he can work independently and work collaboratively with others. In which, self-learning ability of Mathematics is the psychological condition for self- study of Maths. If students do not have the ability to self-study Maths, they cannot have self-study in Mathematics. However, if only the ability to self-study Maths without other factors such as: motivation, purpose, will, interest in self-study, self-study of Maths will not take place or taking place but not achieving the effect as desired. Thus, the ability to self-study of Maths is not only a psychological condition to have self-study activities in Mathematics but also the purpose of self-study in Mathematics. It is worth noting that the capacity of self-study in Mathematics is formed and developed through self-study activities in Mathematics. In fact, the organization of self-study activities of Mathematics shows that the results of self-study depend on the self-learning ability of each student. In order for self-study activities of students to achieve the goal, teachers need to focus on fostering the development of self-learning capacity for students, for example, they can use synchronously the following pedagogical measures: Motivating learning activities of Students; developing intellectual skills, operations and activities in accordance with students’ ability in Maths self-learning; training basic learning skills suitable to students’ self-study tasks; organizing reasonable self-study activities (Khuong, 2006) 2.2.The problem of fostering capacity of Maths self-study for students According to Nguyen Canh Toan (1998), Thai Duy Tuyen (2003), in order to foster the capacity to Maths self-study for students, teachers can implement the following measures: (1) Encouraging students to be proactive in developing self-study plans: Teachers ask students to compare their knowledge and skills that they have accumulated with the standard of knowledge, skillof Maths so that students can self-determine their goals as well as self-study tasks specifically for themselves. Next, based on the time fund and the ability of themselves, students will develop a self-study plan appropriately. (2) Appreciating the independent working results of students: Independent working capacity of students in the process of self-study is expressed through many angles, for example: Students open instructions and try to complete exercises; Students only see the solutions or call for “help” of teachers and friends after trying their best. Students do not depend mechanically on the methods of solving problems introduced in electronic learning materials... In fact, when students independently learn, they tend to want to check the results in order to know that their way of solving problems is exactly or not. In teaching hours, teachers need to encourage students to put out comments on their results and appreciate both the awareness and self-study results of students before the class to increase the motivation for self-study of students. (3) Requiring students to perform operations of analysis, synthesis and comparison: Teachers need to install in the task of Maths self-study with requirements that in work, 319Phần 2: ỨNG DỤNG CÔNG NGHỆ TRONG GIÁO DỤC students shall implement thinking activities like analysis, synthesis, comparison,... On the other hand, because students have accessed to many different sources of information, they have to make comparisons, synthesis,... to choose ways to solve a problem in the most reasonable way. (4) Requiring students to regularly assess their own progress: In addition to teachers’ evaluation, students need to regularly self-assess their self-study results in the following ways: - Performing exercises, test questions; - After completing the exercises’ with help, students must continue to solve the exercises in textbooks, workbooks to actually test the grasping and application of knowledge into their exercises. (5) Encouraging students to discuss and present their views: In addition to organizing for students to discuss, present their personal views on the basis of self-study results in class hours, teachers should encourage students to participate in discussion and protection for their views. 3. Developing the ability to Maths self-study for 12th grade students at high schools with the support of mobile phones. 3.1. Contributing to creating self-learning motivation for students: With the support of learning system on mobile phone, students’ self-study tasks are designed and delegated flexibly under multimedia effects that act as leverage, giving rise to self-learning motivation. In the process of self-study, students continuously are accessed to resources, supporting information in the right time, in the right place to help them achieve each task one by one, which increases the confident ability for students to get motivation, wish to continue to be connected, receive new tasks. Students no longer have “idle periods” with unfinished learning tasks but they are passionate to discover from one problem to another and continue to catch new knowledge with the support of the “virtual Teacher” hidden under websites. Example of content of the Guided Exercise module (in the M-leaming system to support grade-12- students’ Maths self-study on the website mleamingvn.com) includes exercises designed according to branch structure. The solution to each exercise is divided into small ideas (every small idea is a “challenge” of knowledge and skills for students). Figure 1 320 KỶ YẾU HỘI THẢO QUỐC TẾ LẦN THỨ NHẤT VỀ ĐỔI MỚI ĐÀO TẠO GIÁO VIÊN To overcome this “challenge” and move to conquer the next “challenge”, students must correctly answer some multiple choice questions. In the process of completing the tasks specified in the “challenge”, if any student has difficulty in any step, they can click the mouse to review the theory, refer to the suggestions and instructions (Figure 1). The exercises in this module do not have enough and complete explanations. At least students must know to follow the suggestions and detailed instructions to complete the solution. 3.2. Creating conditions to help students regularly assess their own progress The assessment of self-study results of students can be deployed with familiar forms still used in teaching Mathematics, but the difference in the test of assessing students’ self- study results with the support of mobile phones is: The evaluation of self-study results occurs in parallel with the self-study process of students, specifically: Students have to answer multiple-choice questions on their own to assess and adjust self-study plans. On the other hand, the self-study results of each student will be tested through the process of exchange and interaction between students and students in the process of self-study. The evaluation is carried out from many sides at many points of time including online assessment by teachers and students participating in self-study and students themselves. In the process of students’ self-study, based on the goal of self-study, teachers can continue to assign additional tasks of self-study for students through the questionnaire or through the system in the direction of diversification and gradual improvement of requirements. For example: After grasping the theory and learning how to apply the theory to solving exercises through accompanying examples, students begin to challenge themselves with exercises with guidences and suggestions (figure 2). Figure 2 Figure 3 321Phần 2: ỨNG DỤNG CÔNG NGHỆ TRONG GIÁO DỤC After continuing to consolidate and improve the system of knowledge of methods and improve the skills of applying knowledge to the exercise solution, students will self-assess and evaluate their self-study results by logging in the question system of multiple-choice. For each multiple choice question, students must solve problems and exercises into draft to have a basis to choose the answer. If the answer is correct, students will continue to receive a new request, usually the difficulty level and the higher requirement (Figure 3). If the answer is not correct, students will rely on the help of “Virtual Teacher”. However, in this case, the system does not give the solution as the exercises with instructions in the above part but only give suggestions for students to reread in some parts, to review in some examples,... Thus, students will have to make their own efforts to complete the task of solving exercises. In order to improve the capacity of solving exercises, after completing all the exercises in the form of guided and tested exercises, students will continue to study to complete the exercises selected by the teacher. (Figure 4). 3.3. Encouraging students to argue and present their views With the support of M-leaming, the concept of student groups to learn together is expanding: These students are not necessarily in the same class, the same high school but it will be a collection of students who have the same interest and motivation to find a problem, to find a way to solve an exercise... These students are not necessary to be in the same fixed location but each student in a different place, not even to access the network at the same time. Figure 4 Figure 4 Figure 5 322 KỶ YẾU HỘI THẢO QUỐC TẾ LẦN THỨ NHẤT VỀ ĐỔI MỚI ĐÀO TẠO GIÁO VIÊN In the process of self-study, students can use the forum to find friends to share, give their obstacles in learning. With this form, sometimes teachers can act as a student to spark a debate, help students to express their views (Figure 5). 4. Conclusion Current practical conditions in Vietnam can completely ensure the exploitation of some mobile phone applications to support students to self-study Maths and develop the ability to self-study Mathematics, while teachers and students are basically have the skills to exploit mobile applications to support teaching and self-study. We tested pedagogically in design and editing of electronic learning materials and used some functions of mobile phones to support 12th garde students to self-study maths. The first step has brought very positive results showing that the use of some functions of mobile phones to support students to self-study Maths and fully meet the requirements of self-study, contributing to improving the quality of self-study for students. On that basis, we are continuing to experiment on a large scale to overcome some of the limitations of the display screen, memory... of mobile phones, thus promoting all positive elements of the model of M-Leaming. On the other hand, the use of some functions of mobile phones to support students to self-study Maths also contribute to fostering the application of IT in learning and life for students (this is one of the indispensable skills of labor people in the 21st century). References 1. Bass, Lis, Vicky Anderson-Pat Ton, Jerry Allender (2004) Self-study as a way of teaching and learning: A research collaborative re-analysis of self-study teaching portfolios, Improving teacher education practice through self-study, Routledge, 72-86. 2. LaBoskey, Vicki Kubler (2004), The methodology of self-study and its theoretical underpinnings, International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices. Springer, Dordrecht, 817-869. 3. 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Note: The content of the article is extracted from the scientific-technological research project at the level of Thai Nguyen University, Project code No. ĐH2018-TN06-08