impact of employing the whatsapp platform, via its interaction features, on secondary students’ mathematical performance
Through a modified and validated five-point Likert scale survey, this study has examined the existence of a statistically significant association between each of the smartphones with a touch screen and the social media platforms, like WhatsApp and others, and each of students’ math timed exams anxiety, behavior in class and competencies in the word problem solving domain in 18 secondary public schools and 31 private schools in Beirut. Examining the impact of the proper employment of the WhatsApp platform, via its interaction features and collaborative learning, on secondary students’ mathematical performance, through their grades, also in the problem solving and communication domain was the problematic of this study. 1365 secondary students were selected through the random stratified technique to fill the survey and represent 7795 students, while 149 secondary students were selected through the purposive sampling technique for the aforementioned problematic situation. For the descriptive statistics, the researcher has used the frequencies, the percent, the mode and the bar diagram. For the inferential statistics, the researcher has used the Pearson’s Chi-Square Test, the Multiple Regression Analysis, the Test of Normality, the Paired Samples and the Independent Samples T-Tests. Results have revealed a statistically significant association between each of the two independent variables and each of the three dependent ones. Regarding the problematic of the study, the researcher has concluded that because of the lack of a well-designed curriculum, teachers’ practices inside their classes, teachers’ refusal to use or integrate social media in their teaching methods, teachers’ loaded schedules, students’ strong and inadequate bounding with their social media, students’ inability to learn at the same pace, and students’ lack of competencies in the problem solving and communication domain, the WhatsApp platform is unable to revamp the mathematical landscape of the aforementioned domain. (Author’s abstract)