Mathematical Smartphone Use and Achievement in University Linear Algebra

Source abstract

This article reports a reanalysis of smartphone use among 100 first-year Statistics students taking university linear algebra. The students were enrolled in three existing course sections. In two sections (n = 67), instructors promoted mathematical applications for selected course activities; the third section (n = 33) provides a descriptive comparison. We worked from the original item-level records rather than from previously computed totals. During that audit, we reconstructed the questionnaire scores, corrected the opposite response direction used in the final mathematical-use items, and identified a faulty spreadsheet aggregate that had counted several domain subtotals twice. Seven mathematical activities were asked at both measurement occasions. Their mean frequency scores rose by 4.45 points in Section 1, 8.48 in Section 2, and 3.97 in Section 3. Since instructional condition and course section were not separable in this design, these figures describe the observed trajectories and are not estimates of an intervention effect. Final course grades differed markedly among sections. Internal consistency of the reconstructed domains ranged from Cronbach's alpha = .336 to .901. Pearson correlations with final grade ranged from -.241 to -.039; confidence intervals and Spearman coefficients are reported to show the uncertainty and robustness of these estimates. The findings indicate that smartphone ownership, general phone activity, mathematical use, and academic achievement should be treated as distinct features of students' experience.