A PRELIMINARY STUDY TO EXPLORE MOBILE LEARNING IN THE 6TH GRADE MATHEMATICS CLASSROOM IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

The Ministry of Education (MoE), in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has taken steps to increase the use of mobile technology in the teaching and learning of mathematics at all levels of education (elementary, middle grades, secondary, and post-secondary). A study was designed to provided teachers and Emirati students (Arabic and English speaking) the opportunity to use a new mathematical app developed based on the culture of the UAE. More specifically, the research project was designed to investigate Emirati middle school students using Mobile Learning to explore contextual mathematics problems in the UAE culture. The contextual mathematics problems were written to relate to the culture of the UAE. The app allows students to navigate through several modules to examine various mathematical concepts. The research team was curious to know how Emirati middle school students solve problems, interact with the app, and accuracy of solutions. It is our hope that additional mathematics apps based on the Emirati culture will be designed. We also wanted to elevate the notion that girls could be engaged in mathematics and the new app provides contextual mathematics problems geared to attract girls. This proposal will report on the research design and exploration of the mathematical app that was created. The research project is currently in-progress.