Perceptions of using interactive mathematics software among Rwandan primary school teachers

Abstract

This study aimed to explore primary school teachers’ perception of using Interactive Mathematics (IM) software in teaching and learning activities using qualitative interpretive phenomenology. It involved seven teachers non-randomly selected from the lower and upper primary with different gender and teaching experiences who participated in a semi-structured interview which took around 30 minutes on average for each interviewed teacher after the experimentation period. Data were collected by recording and writing in a notebook some key information using both English and Kinyarwanda languages to capture the maximum perception of teachers. Translation of Kinyarwanda answers to English and transcription followed by respecting the main interview questions. Three themes emerged: (1) the disadvantages of traditional teaching and learning of mathematics, (2) the benefits of aspects of ICT and interactive mathematics software, and (3) the challenges of using ICT and interactive mathematics software. Based on the findings, suggestions, and recommendations about the effective utilization of IM in classroom activities, as well as its integration into the curriculum, were discussed.

Keywords:

• benefits and challenges of teaching with ICT
• interactive software
• mathematics software
• Rwandan primary schools
• teachers’ perceptions

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

Teachers’ attitudes and perceptions about teaching and learning practices have an important role in quality education achievement. This article presents a qualitative study on Rwandan teachers’ perception of teaching mathematics in the smart classroom using Interactive Mathematics software (IM). IM is a new technological tool developed to support the effective implementation of the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) in mathematics at the primary school level in Rwanda. From interviews, teachers explained their experience with teaching with ICT, their awareness of IM software, their lived experience in IM-supported teaching and learning, and how they perceived IM’s potential to boost quality mathematics education while considering that, for many teachers, this was a new teaching experience. From the results, teachers believe that IM-supported teaching increases understanding and interest to learn which cannot be achieved effectively through traditional teaching methods. They also formulated their wishes for the future of IM in quality mathematics education in Rwanda.

1. Introduction

1.1. Teacher teaching experience in Rwanda

ICT integration in education was considered as a key strategic tool expected to contribute to the country’s economic transformation (MINEDUC, 2018). In this context, the education sector as a whole has been experiencing a more general pattern shift with the advent of technology (Perienen, 2020). It is why Rwanda opted to equip both primary and secondary students with ICT tools and allow them to interact with these tools guided by their teachers to enhance quality education (Das, 2019).

In 2015, Rwanda revised its curriculum by shifting from a teacher-centered to a learner-centered approach, whereby teachers engage learners in active learning and in constructing their knowledge. Through this learning approach, less lecturing and more engaging teaching methods are expected to dominate classroom activities (Ndihokubwayo & Habiyaremye, 2018). Therefore, ICT use in teaching and learning activities was prioritized to support the effective implementation of the new Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC) which is in its early phases of implementation in Rwanda since 2015. In fact, newer technologies under development brought many pedagogical benefits including the removal of the concern about teachers being anchored in front of classes, and instead the promotion of more interactivity and participation in a learner-centered teaching environment Beauchamp, (2004). Therefore, the use of ICT in classroom practices is important to shift from traditional role of the teacher as a “sage on the stage,” which promote passive learning and less engagement of learners. With ICT use as an instructional tool, teachers are free to move about the class checking on learners’ engagement and activities as well as responding to learners’ needs.

1.2. Challenges of the traditional teaching of mathematics

Mathematics, like other subjects used to be taught by a teacher using a chalk-and-talk approach, whereby students learned just by listening to what the teacher was saying (Sharndama, 2013). For instance, in Mathematics, several students said that their teachers went too fast and could not explain mathematics concepts clearly (Swan, 2000). Similarly, Ukobizaba et al. (2021) argued that teachers giving poor marks and being harsh and careless are some factors contributing to students feeling demotivated to learn mathematics in Rwandan primary and secondary schools. The fact that teachers do not take time to interact with students by discussing mathematics concepts results in rote learning; students simply memorize formulas without understanding where those formulas are derived from, and why and when those formulas are to be used (Ishartono et al., 2019). Consequently, teaching students to recall formulas does not provide students with opportunities to develop their central mathematical competencies, such as problem-solving ability, reasoning ability, and mathematics conceptual understanding (Lithner, 2012). However, Ukobizaba et al. (2021) suggested that teachers should show the relevance of Mathematics in everyday situations, give them lots of work examples, and provide exercises and home works, to enhance students’ performance in mathematics. Therefore, teachers need to shift from the traditional way of teaching and adopt a new interactive teaching and learning style, which is key to enhancing students’ performance and skills development through interactive ICT tools (Beauchamp, 2004).

1.3. The goodness of teaching with ICT and interactive mathematics software

A significant increase in ICT integration in teaching and learning mathematics was recorded worldwide in the past ten years (Das, 2019; Perraton, 2000). With the development of technology, educationists and researchers were interested in finding which appropriate teaching method and effective educational technology to teach mathematics. The technology used should support mathematics teaching and learning (Radović et al., 2020). To this end, integrating ICT tools such as interactive mathematics (IM) in primary schools may be a vital tool due to its role in improving students’ performance in mathematics and its potential to enhance students’ skills as they interact with technological tools (Das, 2019). In addition, teachers’ perceptions towards the IM should affect students’ performance in mathematics since it was found that the Primary Six (P6) learners who performed highly in mathematics in the Rwandan national examinations are those taught by teachers who had positive attitudes toward teaching resources used that promote students’ active learning (Gichuru & Ongus, 2016).

1.4. Benefits of learning aspects with ICT and mathematics software

ICT not only facilitates teachers in their teaching practice but also plays a key role in enhancing students’ performance and lifelong learning (Munyengabe et al., 2017). ICT can afford to monitor students’ achievement through regular assessments (Golzar et al., 2022), which inform teachers about students’ progress to make the appropriate decision and effective educational management. Also, ICT helps students to make self-reflection about their learning progress. Furthermore, ICT contributes to strengthening teacher professional development and improving the quality of education (Ministry of Education, 2016). In mathematics, ICT enables students to make calculations, draw graphs, and solve problems. For instance, an IM spreadsheet can help students make graphs and calculations and solve mathematical problems (Das, 2019). It is why, Jalinus and Alim (2019) argued that teaching mathematics to elementary kids using ICT is important since it enhances students’ creativity, active learning, and independent learning. Therefore, using ICT tools such as IM is expected to improve the quality of mathematics being taught as it is adaptive to students’ age, making them perform and enjoy the lesson (Jalinus & Alim, 2019).

1.5. Role of ICT in teaching big classes and time management

ICTs influence interactive and collaborative learning environments in place of traditional teaching and learning, which was dominated by teacher-talking and student listening. With this affordance brought by ICT tools, multimedia devices and internet technologies are used to facilitate teaching large classes (Sharndama, 2013). In addition, ICT was found to enhance students’ self-regulation as a fundamental element that enhances the awareness of time management for planned learning and submission of the given activities by respecting the deadline (Yamada et al., 2016). In addition, research about learners’ emotions and control in the multimedia environment found that using ICT in teaching and learning may help learners benefit from negative emotions when control strategies are implemented in the multimedia environment (Chen et al., 2021).

1.6. Challenges of using ICT and mathematics software

Although the integration of ICT has the potential to concretize mathematical concepts (Beauchamp, 2004; Jalinus & Alim, 2019), Mathematics remains viewed as a challenging subject even in normal circumstances (Rozgonjuk et al., 2020). For instance, Mazur et al. (2021) argued that there are challenges connected with learning mathematics using ICT, whereby hands-on activities and practical experiments are also required. Similarly, Bentata (2020) argued that students struggle with typing mathematics expressions. In addition, the lack of internet and electricity in remote areas, the high cost of ICT equipment, and students’ and teachers’ insufficient skills to use ICT tools were challenges for effective ICT integration in teaching and learning (Rajan & Manyala, 2021). It is why Naidoo (2020) suggested that teachers and students should be provided with resources that are easy to use, readily available, and cost-effective.

1.7. Problem statement and AIM of the study

Although Rwanda has set policies and invested much in ICT integration within the educational system from primary to higher learning institutions, there are still gaps in implementing those strategies and policies. For instance, most pre-and in-service teachers teach without sufficient knowledge about ICT tools, which may affect quality education (Mugiraneza, 2021). Although many students are enrolled in primary schools, there is a need to link enrollment with the quality of education received by students (Ministry of Education, 2016). In this context, there is a need to explore primary teachers’ perceptions of IM since there is a link between teachers’ perceptions of their teaching practices and students’ performance (Gichuru & Ongus, 2016). In addition, there is a need to investigate primary teachers’ perceptions and attitudes about how they teach mathematics through the integration of ICT since the awareness of teachers’ practices leads to changing pedagogy and making adequate educational policies to improve teaching and learning (Zakaria & Daud, 2013).

Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB), in partnership with a Japanese private company (SAKURA-SHA), created software commonly known as Interactive Mathematics (IM) software to support the implementation of basic mathematics in primary schools. Thus, teachers should fully understand the relevance of IM and its use in teaching mathematics since IM software has the potential to develop students’ acquisition of primary mathematics topics as developed in the Competence-based Curriculum (CBC) being used in Rwanda (Ndihokubwayo & Habiyaremye, 2018). The IM software has been in the piloting phase since 2018, which was expected to last for three years. Thus, the present study explores Rwandan primary teachers’ perception of IM since it is piloted in primary schools in Rwanda. It specifically wants to explore (a) the disadvantages of the traditional teaching of mathematics, (b) the benefits of teaching and learning aspects with ICT and interactive mathematics software, and (c) the challenges of using ICT and mathematics software. The findings from the study will inform Rwanda Education Board (REB) about the extent to which teachers appreciate the IM software in promoting quality mathematics teaching and learning in primary schools of Rwanda to make adequate decisions regarding this newly introduced technology.

2. Methodology

2.1. Research design

This research used a qualitative approach guided by phenomenology interpretivism philosophy. According to Tuffour (2017), qualitative research appreciates the meanings people attribute to their experiences. According to Sundler et al. (2019), the philosophy of phenomenology refers to the study of a phenomenon, something as it is experienced or lived by a human being, or how things appear in our experiences. This study aimed at collecting teachers’ perceptions about lived experiences in their teaching practices supported by the IM.

2.2. Participants and sample

This study focused on primary school teachers of mathematics who taught mathematics using Interactive Mathematics software. Seven (7) teachers from elementary school who have taught in treatment classes were non-randomly selected to participate in a semi-structured interview about their perception of the potential of Interactive Mathematics supported teaching to boost quality mathematics education in primary schools. Participants were female and male teachers of different teaching experiences in teaching mathematics in primary school from primary two, primary three, primary 4, and primary 5 which were the levels of our research focus. However, a primary-1 teacher who also contributed to the piloting of IM in primary-1 was interviewed to gain insight into the experience lived at that level. The table below shows the sample of teachers by teaching experiences, gender, and level of teaching Table 1.

Table 1. Number of teachers by teaching experience, gender, and level of teaching

Teacher’s code	Teaching experience	Type of school	Females	Males	Lower	Upper
Teacher 5 (T5)	4 years	Public	1		1
Teacher 1 (T1)	5 years	Private		1		1
Teacher 3 (T3)	10 years	Private		1	1	1
Teacher 6 (T6)	18 years	Public	1			1
Teacher 4 (T4)	20 years	Public	1		1
Teacher 2 (T2)	25 years	Public	1			1
Teacher 7 (T7)	32 years	Public	1		1
	Total		5	2	4	4

The study involved female and male mathematics teachers with teaching experience ranging from 4 years to 32 years of teaching experience in lower or upper levels from three public and two private schools.

2.3. Research instrument description

A semi-structured interview was designed to collect data from 7 teachers of elementary school who participated in this study. The researchers focused on teachers’ perceptions about the potential of IM to support quality education in basic mathematics. During this study, a semi-structured interview was developed and used. A pen and paper, together with a digital recorder, were used. The researcher recorded the information from interviews to preserve the entire information for future analysis. The interview was designed in Kinyarwanda and English to facilitate the respondents’ choice of language of communication. However, respondents were free to switch from one language to another while elaborating on their opinions. Using a recorder was better than direct writing for collecting the entire information in terms of words in such a way that it was very easy for the researcher to playback while transcribing and interpreting the data.

2.4. The description of teaching intervention using IM software

The IM-supported teaching took place in experimental groups selected from public and private schools from primary-2, primary-3, primary-4, and primary-5, which were the target group of our study during 2019 and 2020 research activities. However, considering that the piloting of IM also involved primary 1 in 2019, we included one teacher of primary one in our interview to hear about her lived experience in teaching primary 1 learners with IM. Before the teaching intervention, teachers underwent a two-day training about the manipulation of IM and its integration into the teaching of mathematics. Lesson preparation drafts followed by microteaching sessions were conducted during the training to find an effective way of teaching using IM. The teaching intervention consisted of 2 types. Type-A intervention consisted of IM-supported teaching using a projector and a computer manipulated by a teacher, and a wireless mouse which was used by both the teacher and learners. Learners’ activities consisted of following the teacher’s presentation on the screen and engaging in interactive mathematics activities using a wireless mouse under the teacher’s invitation or working on projected exercises using an exercise book and a pen. The teacher used to move around the class, monitoring learners’ work and correcting them. For each projected exercise, a learner was invited to correct it in front of the class using a wireless mouse under the teacher’s and other learners’ guidance, and all learners managed to compare their work to the projected correction. As the software cannot project different exercises at once, one activity was projected and given time to work on and correct it before embarking on the next activity. The role of the teacher was to facilitate learners’ activities, manage the classroom environment, check on the time, correct the work of an individual learner, invite a learner to correct in plenary, and give the next activity. Type-A experimentation was used in primary-1, primary-2, primary-3, primary-4, and primary-5 during the 2019 and 2020 research activities.

In 2019, one public school accommodated type-B intervention, with enough rooms for smart teaching and enough XO computers for all primary-4 and primary-5 learners. This consisted of the teacher teaching with a computer and a projector while learners followed and worked on exercises and other activities using their individual XO computers. Like in type-A, the teacher used to switch on working on a blackboard with a piece of chalk and to engage learners in working in their exercise books using pens to develop their reasoning and conceptual understanding and exercise their motor skills.

This type of experimentation was not used in many schools, as it required teachers and learners with enough basic computer skills. In addition, many schools could not have enough learners’ XO computers in good condition or infrastructure, allowing them to have a smart classroom to accommodate the teaching. Besides, some XO computer versions were not compatible with IM software. In addition, while policies governing the distribution of resources like computers in schools target public schools, private schools have to buy these resources as they are not under public governance. All these challenges influenced type-A experimentation in almost all schools except in primary 4 and primary 5 of one public school.

2.5. Data collection procedure

Data were collected from participants’ interviews conducted by the researcher after research activities were concluded. During data collection, the participant was asked to provide his/her free consent to participate in the study after being communicated about the purpose and the importance of the interview and reassured about the anonymity of respondents during data analysis. The time favorable for the participant to spend nearly 30 minutes was agreed upon between the researcher and the participant. The interview started with questions related to challenges encountered in teaching mathematics traditionally, followed by the items for collecting teachers’ lived experiences in IM-supported classes in quest of quality teaching and learning. For each item, a respondent expressed his or her understanding, opinions, and concerns, followed by the researchers probing questions, inspiring questions, and challenging ones to stimulate the respondents’ deep thinking and provision enough explanations. However, the interviewer ensured to stay connected to the core question or theme until the next question or theme was tackled. At the same time, the researcher recorded the respondent’s voice while writing some new ideas or important points to consider in the interviews.

2.6. Ethical procedure

After getting ethical clearance, the researcher visited selected schools to obtain their free consent to participate in the study. The researchers have explained to the school administrative agents and teachers the research purpose, processes, and roles of the school administration, teachers, and researchers. Participants and school administrators were assured anonymity during data presentation, analysis, and interpretation. Therefore, during data collection and analysis, participants were referred to as teacher-1, teacher-2, teacher-3, etc.

3. Data analysis and results presentation

After collecting data, the first author transcribed the recording and translated the data provided in Kinyarwanda into English. Besides, some information collected by writing was also organized to be integrated into the transcripts. The first author arranged questions with their corresponding data to facilitate analysis. Data were analyzed thematically using the interpretive analysis following interpretive phenomenology. According to Tuffour (2017), interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) aims to look at how someone makes sense of a life experience and give a detailed interpretation of the account to understand the experience. Therefore, IPA represents a beneficial methodology in providing a rich and nuanced insight into the experiences of research participants (Tuffour, 2017). Data were analyzed via Taguette, a free and open-source (https://www.taguette.org/) qualitative data analysis (QDA) software (Rampin & Rampin, 2021). The analysis consisted of reading interview responses, identifying and highlighting the key idea from data, and creating a corresponding tag which later was analyzed as codes. Taguette software supported the coding method by importing the interview transcripts, reading over, tagging/coding, and computing the frequencies of tags by exporting the Taguette project into the Excel codebook. Besides, a word document was opened to facilitate the caption of emerging themes, their categorization, and organization by related tags/codes. Specific direct quotes were selected from interview responses and directly used in the interviewee’s term to discuss discrepancies to ensure that a consensus was reached or to support the explanation and demonstrate the robustness of each theme (Bouzo et al., 2022; Maghiar & Brown, 2022). The author’s first coding was given to the second author and an external researcher to evaluate the coding method concerning the meaning of codes concerning interview responses. This allowed the first author to correct potential coding method errors and reduce coding biases. Figure 1 serves as an example of a coding method and direct quoting.

Figure 1. Example of coding method and direct quotes from teacher-2 responses

From Table 2 15 codes grouped into three themes provided data about teachers’ perceptions of using IM in teaching and learning mathematics. Data about the disadvantages of traditional mathematics teaching were collected using three codes: teachers’ heavy load, low understanding, and low motivation. The benefits of using ICT and mathematics software generated nine codes, while two codes were generated from teachers’ interviews to explain the challenges of using ICT and interactive mathematics software. These codes were identified directly or indirectly from teachers’ interviews. From one teacher’s interview, one code should appear once or several times while answering an interview question. In addition, one code should appear for one teacher but not for another one, as the interview questions asked were open questions. Each of the seven teachers’ interviews was coded, and the frequency of occurrence was generated for every code. The total frequency for a code for all seven teachers was provided to allow a generalized analysis of all teachers’ perceptions.

Table 2. Distribution of codes among interviewed teachers

Themes	Codes	T1	T2	T3	T4	T5	T6	T7	Tot
Disadvantages of the traditional teaching of mathematics	Teacher heavy load	1	0	0	0	2	0	2	5
	Low understanding	2	1	3	3	4	1	2	16
	Low motivation	1	0	0	2	4	1	1	9
Benefits of teaching and learning aspects with ICT and interactive mathematics software	Teacher easy load	2	2	1	0	0	0	2	7
	Easy lesson plan	2	1	1	0	2	0	3	9
	Easy to teach big classes	3	2	2	2	1	1	3	14
	Easy to manage the time	1	0	1	0	3	1	0	6
	Increase understanding	1	8	9	1	10	3	6	38
	Easy to manage distraction	2	2	1	2	1	0	0	8
	Learners’ engagement	1	0	1	0	7	0	0	9
	Increase interest in learning	1	3	5	3	9	0	2	23
	Matching with Rwandan CBC	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	3
Challenges of using ICT and interactive mathematics software	Teaching various content	1	0	1	3	0	1	3	9
	Insufficiency of computers	1	1	0	2	0	1	0	5
	Training time and period	2	2	0	2	1	0	2	9
	Errors in terminologies	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1

From the findings, the disadvantages of traditional mathematics teaching were coded as Teacher Heavy Load, Low Understanding, and Low Motivation. Teacher Heavy Load was mentioned by Teacher 1 (T1) one time, Teacher 2 (T2) two times, and teacher 7 (T7) 2 times leading to a total of 5 times. However, during their interview, T2, T3, T4, and T6 did not mention it. Low Understanding of code was mentioned 16 times by all teachers. It was mentioned two times by T1 and T7, once by T2 and T6, three times by T3 and T4, and four times by T5. Low Motivation code was mentioned once by T1, T6, and T7, twice by T4, and four times by T5. Considering all teachers, the Low Motivation code appeared nine times. From the findings, the disadvantage of traditional teaching is, in general, learners’ low understanding considering the highest occurrence of Low Understanding of code compared to other codes.

The findings about the benefits of teaching and learning aspects with ICT and mathematics software tools show that Teacher Easy Load, Easy Lesson Plan, Easy to Teach Big Classes, Easy to Manage Distractions, Increase Understanding, Increase Learner Engagement, Increase Interest in learning, and Match with the CBC were the codes that emerged from teachers interview. Teacher Easy load was mentioned two times by T1, T2, and T7, while T3 mentioned it once, making a total of 7 frequencies for all teachers. Easy Lesson Plan was coded nine times by all teachers, specifically two times by T1 and T5, by T2 and T3, and by three times by T7. Easy to Teach Big Classes was coded by T1 and T7 three times; T2, T3, and T4 two times; T5 and T6 once, which make a total frequency of 14. Easy to Manage Time was mentioned six times by T1, T3, and T5, who mentioned it once, and T5, who mentioned it three times during their interviews. Easy to Manage Distraction code appeared eight times from all teachers. T1, T2, and T4 mentioned it two times, while T3 and T5 mentioned it once. The increased understanding code was the highest coded of all codes, as it was mentioned 38 times by all teachers. It was mentioned once by T1 and T4, eight times by T2, nine times by T3, ten times by T5, three times by 3, and 6 times by T7. An increase in Learners Engagement was mentioned by T1 and T3 once and seven times by T5, making a total frequency of 9. Increased Interest to Learn was mentioned once by T1, three times by T2 and T4, five times by T3, and nine times by T5, totaling 23 times for all teachers. All teachers mentioned nine times during the interview that the IM content matches the Rwandan CBC. Considering all eight codes about this theme, all teachers mentioned that using ICT and Interactive Mathematics software is beneficial to teaching and learning aspects in many aspects but mostly in increasing learners understanding with 38 total frequencies.

The challenges of using ICT and Interactive Mathematics Software were coded as Teaching Various Contents, Insufficiency of Computers, and Errors in Terminologies. Many teachers, especially in upper primary, mentioned nine times that the IM software content was developed on a few mathematics contents, which restricted the teaching to some mathematics contents. Besides, a few teachers mentioned other challenges, including errors in terminologies used in IM content which are different from the ones used normally, and insufficiency of computers as challenges faced during teaching with IM.

4. Major findings

Figure 2 below visualizes the cumulated codes from teachers about their perceptions of the challenges of traditional teaching methods and the benefits and challenges of using IM software in teaching and learning mathematics.

Figure 2. Cumulated codes from teachers

It was realized that many teachers’ views about traditional teaching methods were that the latter bring about learners’ low understanding of concepts, while other few mentioned learners’ low motivation and teachers’ heavy workload. On the benefits of teaching and learning aspects with ICT and mathematics software, teachers who participated in the interview mentioned that teachers’ load, lesson planning, and learners’ distraction management, as well as teaching big classes, get easier. In addition, learners’ understanding, engagement, and learning interest likely increase. Considering all coded data, increased understanding, interest to learn, and easy teaching in the big class was respectively the most mentioned by teachers.

Among the disadvantages faced during IM-supported teaching, time management and teaching various content were the most mentioned as disadvantages. Therefore, from the findings, teachers believe that IM-supported teaching is highly beneficial to teaching and learning aspects and can remediate the challenges faced in traditional teaching methods, like learners’ low understanding, despite some persisting challenges like an adaptation of IM content to management and teaching various mathematics content using IM software. Therefore, from the findings above, teaching using traditional methods is disadvantageous to learners’ easy understanding. At the same time, the benefits of IM-supported teaching include easy understanding, increased learning interest, and easy teaching of big classes.

5. Discussion of findings

In this study, the researchers focused on investigating the teachers’ perception of the potential of IM to support quality education in basic mathematics within primary schools in Rwanda. During data analysis, the theme describing the benefits of teaching and learning aspects with ICT and interactive mathematics software and the theme about the challenges of using ICT and interactive mathematics software dominated the discussion of the study findings. The findings are discussed thematically as follows:

5.1. Research objective #1 disadvantages of the traditional teaching of mathematics

According to teachers, the traditional mode of teaching mathematics using chalk and talk is likely disadvantageous to achieving quality education. Many factors have been mentioned, like teachers’ load, lack of adequate teaching aids, and lower or upper levels of basic education teachers’ load in the primary is likely heavy, resulting in teachers’ difficulties catering to the individual learner. According to one teacher, “The teacher is at the same time busy to write on the blackboard and to engage individual learners in activities” (Teacher 1). This seems to be mostly realized in public schools, where the ratio of learners per teacher is higher than in private schools. Therefore, the teacher’s time to cater to individual learners’ needs is very reduced, and learners’ opportunity to understand with the teacher’s help is limited. In one interview, a teacher explained: “You can understand that we teach using chalk and blackboard, but it is difficult for learners to understand because the teacher must help individual learners, which is also difficult given a large number of learners in class and means to motivate learners are not there” (Teacher 1).

According to teachers, conceptual development in mathematics necessitate the use of teaching aids to concretize concepts. “Manipulatives help learners to develop an understanding” (Teacher 6). Teachers explained the importance of teaching aids by using examples: “ … if it is the teaching of fractions or shares is taught in the abstract, learners will not understand easily as there is nothing that shows how big the share is, they cannot understand it; it is necessary to use a concrete object like an avocado” (Teacher 3). However, the availability of teaching aids together with their adequacy seems to be the main challenge to the traditional teaching method. One teacher explained this as follows: “Finding teaching aids is very difficult. Sometimes teaching aids are either not available or not sufficient, which affects concretization and conceptual understanding” (Teacher 1). When asked how they teach without teaching aids, a teacher said that “in such a case, we try to use what we see around us, the environment in which we are, we also use drawings” (Teacher 3). Using locally available materials or improvisation seems to be one way to address the lack of teaching aids.

Although teaching mathematics in lower primary and upper primary schools needs to be concretized to develop conceptual understanding. However, this is likely easier for experienced teachers but not new teachers regarding methodological use and accuracy. The use of drawings instead of physical objects may not be effective, especially in lower primary. On the availability of teaching aids, teachers explained comparatively that “In lower primary, there is no problem of finding teaching aids (or improvisation), but when it comes to upper primary, there is a problem of lack of geometrical materials for the children; they do not bring tools for geometry and learn without engaging in practical work due to lack of learning aids” (Teacher 4). From their explanations, learners from low-income families or non-educated ones face the problem of bringing geometrical materials (mathematical set) because of socio-economic factors and some parents’ mindsets that do not value education. “Those children learn with difficulties because of lack of concretization and understanding” (Teacher 6).

5.2. Research objective #2 benefits of teaching and learning aspects with ICT and interactive mathematics software

Teachers were asked to explain their experience in teaching mathematics with ICT tools. They all said that they used the REB e-learning platform to simply download scripted lessons from the REB e-learning platform or sometimes to engage learners in a short observation of the concepts from e-learning platform lessons and continue with the traditional teaching and learning. Many teachers did not know interactive Mathematics software (IM) before it was introduced to them for the first time during the pilot study. Teachers’ knowledge about ICT use in teaching and learning was limited to the REB e-learning platform (Moodle), where they rarely download scripted lessons to teach traditionally. Some of them are used to engage learners in observation of some concepts and processes on the platform but in a way that cannot be considered real teaching. Teachers were asked about the experience lived while using the IM in teaching and learning. Their answers were grouped into benefits of IM on the teacher’s side to the learners’ side, the challenges faced, and recommendations about improving IM’s potential for quality education.

5.2.1. Increase understanding

IM-supported teaching has been perceived as beneficial to quality teaching and learning by teachers because it likely manifested the potential to increase understanding and interest to learn, to ease teachers’ load, to ease lesson planning, to facilitate time management and distraction, etc. While traditional teaching likely causes learners low understanding, teachers’ perceptions about the benefits of IM-supported teaching include increasing understanding which has been coded 38 times from 7 interviews. From teachers’ views, this may result from the IM software content and lesson presentation, which use “different colors, arrows, and other types of demonstrations (dragging for changing the positions or the numbers involving corresponding distances), which facilitates the easy understanding of the distance between integers and the potential of IM to facilitated learners work on many exercises and get direct feedback” (Teacher 2). Another teacher mentioned that “the software is very helpful to learners as it has a very large number of exercises that they work on using their notebook and check the answers from the software. So, it speeds up the availability of the exercise without the teacher writing on the backboard, which sometimes is dirty and requires to be cleaned before writing. Therefore it saves time and provides learners many exercises and quick feedback” (Teacher 1).

A colorful presentation of IM content and movements of the process attract learners’ attention and concentration to learning, improving learners’ engagement. According to teacher 1, “IM may facilitate the engagement and the focus of many learners more than the teacher can do in a traditional class.” This facilitates the teacher’s task to engage learners and the struggle to make the lesson understandable as one teacher mentioned in the following terms: “the way learners understand it is very easy without asking the teacher too much because they are seeing everything from the beginning of the lesson” (Teacher 3). These findings seem to confirm the result of a study conducted on the impact of multimedia on students’ perception of the learning environment in mathematics class by Chipangura and Aldridge (2017), which revealed that the learning environment in mathematics classes influenced student’ engagement. Therefore, the study recommended students’ frequent exposure to multimedia in teaching and learning activities to promote positive learning environments and improve student engagement in mathematics. This should be planned and facilitated by the teacher during the teaching and learning activities for the safety of multimedia tools and the learners’ maximum learning benefits.

By considering all eight codes about the first theme of our discussion, teachers declared that the use of ICT and IM software is beneficial to teaching and learning aspects in many aspects but mostly in increasing learners’ understanding. It was similarly argued before that, new interactive teaching and learning style through Interactive White Board was a key to enhancing students’ performance and skills development (Beauchamp, 2004). The newer technologies under development likely reduced the concern of teachers’ chalk-and-talk approach and instead encouraged more teacher-learner interactivity through a learner-centered teaching approach (Ndihokubwayo & Habiyaremye, 2018). Furthermore, Das (2019) and Radović et al. (2020) found that integrating ICT tools such as interactive mathematics (IM) software in primary schools is vital. They argue that ICT contribute to enhancing students’ performance in mathematics and that it holds the potential to enhance student’s skills development during their interaction with technological tools. Thus, technology has the affordance to support the teaching and learning of mathematics even when applied in Rwandan primary schools.

According to some teachers, the teaching of integers is effectively achieved in IM-supported classes better than in traditional classes. “I would give an example for integers; there are negative and positive numbers, and the child cannot easily understand why the number is either negative or positive. In traditional teaching mode, the teacher hardly manages to bring them to the understanding that if you are below zero, the number should be negative, and if you are above zero, the number should be positive. Normally, understanding the concept of integers draws basically on understanding this mechanism. If you understand this mechanism immediately, it does not take anything else. Learning with IM and how it demonstrates the number line of integers facilitate learners to grasp this mechanism immediately because of the graphs, colors, movement, and dragging as well as sounds accompanying each process. Learners immediately know the location of the negative number and the positive number. You can ask them to compare them. They understand that the part below zero, although it is a number that appears to be large, is not large. For example, when asked to compare −5 and +2, they easily understand that +2 is bigger than −5 because of their location to concerning zero, which they know as a reference point” (Teacher 3). Another teacher clarified how she experienced learners understanding of integers by using IM software as follows: “learners who learned integers using IM (experimental) understood more than those who learned in traditional methods (control), either before experimentation, during, and after experimentation” (Teacher 7).

In addition to integers, teachers explain that the teaching of place value is easily achieved thanks to the movements of mathematics objects in IM content: “The software helped to teach the place values like ones, tens, and hundreds very easily. That is to say that when the child masters the learning of place value with a concrete object, he/she understands what the mechanism is and what is remaining is to show him or her how to demonstrate place values using a diagram. So, I found that the software can fit into the semi-concrete stage of teaching place values. It is easy to do it with the software because the drawings are automatically created by the software. And it helps to learn the place values of large numbers, which are difficult to do in traditional methods to manipulate concrete objects and semi-concrete objects of large numbers. The child cannot do it, but the software can help easily visualize large numbers’ place values using diagrams. It was easy with the software to visibly organize the objects (in ones, tens, hundreds, etc.), which cannot be easy for the teacher to draw on the blackboard” (Teacher 4).

Teaching with IM makes mathematics concepts more concrete. However, teachers claim that the use of IM could be effective if it follows the traditional mode of teaching to demonstrate the concepts using physical material. They explain that the IM software should traditionally reinforce what has been taught to boost learners’ interest and motivation. One teacher explained it as follows: “For example, the teacher may just show learners stones or bananas, learners manipulate them and use them in the activity (concrete stage), and then the teacher moves to use the software to show images of stones and bananas on the software, and the learner does with the software the same activities are done manually. Or the teacher may take 10 minutes to divide ten bananas among five learners; he/she shows them bananas (real ones) and divide them among five learners, then after that practical demonstration, the software comes in to show mathematical processes involved in dividing ten by 5”(Teacher 5).

5.2.2. Increase interest in learning

Another benefit of IM-supported teaching, which teachers highly mentioned, is “Increase Interest in Learning,” coded 23 times from 7 interviews. This was the second highly mentioned interest in IM-supported teaching after “Increase Understanding.” Teachers explained it in the following terms: “Teaching with IM is enjoyable for both the teacher and learners” (Teacher 3). For another teacher, “IM-supported teaching was interesting for learners who normally get easily bored learning mathematics because the software has graphs, images, sounds, and interactive content, which keep learners interested and engaged in learning it. Mathematics presentation in game-like settings attracts learners’ attention and interest in learning” (Teacher 2). Therefore, these findings are likely in line with other findings of a study conducted in primary schools to explore learners’ perceptions and experiences of self–regulated science learning in multimedia-supported e-learning environments (So et al., 2019). It was found that Multimedia-supported e-learning likely offers learners an enjoyable independent learning experience. Although its effectiveness in supporting self-regulated learning in science was inconclusive, the study suggested more opportunities for students’ exposure to e-learning resources to ensure more effective self-regulated learning (So et al., 2019).

5.2.3. Teacher easy load

Some teachers’ answers to the benefits of teaching mathematics using IM used to come back frequently to the teacher’s easy load. One of them explained it in the following terms: “IM is very beneficial to the teacher as it lightens the teacher’s heavy load of teaching by writing on the blackboard and using books in teaching. For IM use, the teacher only has to know how to use the computer and the software because everything is prepared. It eases the teacher’s job a lot. I found it very well developed as lessons are well organized and ordered from simple to complex. The lessons are well organized. It lessens teachers’ heavy load of teaching while writing on the Blackboard (BB) and consulting books” (Teacher 1).

5.2.4. Easy lesson plan

When teachers were asked how they perceived IM lessons and how they could help them make lesson plans, they all said that IM lesson presentations could facilitate teachers’ planning of lessons. One claimed that “IM content is well presented because lessons are ordered from simple to complex. Lessons are not mixed in disorder; they are well prepared and organized” (Teacher 1). It is known that a well-planned lesson is successfully taught because we teach the way we have planned. Therefore, a lesson planned with IM as an instructional tool is likely to be well taught and can potentially improve learners’ understanding and performance according to teachers’ lived experiences. This may result in other positive aspects of the classroom environment, like management of learners’ behavior, and management of time, as learners’ attention is fully directed to a well-planned and taught lesson. This can be realized from different teachers’ speeches. “IM-supported teaching helps in classroom management as every learner is busy. IM software cannot be a source of distraction to learners because learners have many activities to work on with the computer. And because of the audio characteristics of the IM, learners cannot be distracted as all their attention is on IM content. I found that IM can help to improve the performance of both girls and boys because it reduces their distractions” (Teacher 1). Another teacher added that the IM supported teaching reduces learners’ boredom compared to traditional one: “because the content is presented with graphs and images, which allows learners to keep focusing on the lesson (concentrated and focused) when they are learning, which is different from learning traditionally because they easily get tired of learning” (Teacher 2). Another benefit of IM supported teaching raised by the teacher is to ease the teaching in big classes. One teacher explained that “it can help to manage the class by reducing learners’ absent-mindedness and by attracting their attention to IM content. It helps in classroom management” (Teacher 1).

The use of ICT through IM is expected to ease teachers’ workload and increase students’ interest in learning. For instance, the teachers who participated in the interview mentioned that teachers’ load, lesson planning, and learners’ distraction management, as well as teaching big classes, get easier. Our findings concur with Sharndama’s (2013) findings that ICT tools such as multimedia devices and internet technologies facilitate teachers in teaching large classes. Similarly, the use of ICT facilitates teachers in classroom and time management, since through the use of ICT, students are self-regulated, they are aware of teaching and learning activities, and they know when to do the given activities as they also respect the submission deadline of the given activities (Yamada et al., 2016). Introducing IM in mathematics instruction increased students’ understanding, and interest in learning. This learning approach is opposite to the traditional teaching approach, whereby teachers cannot take time to interact with students by discussing the results of mathematics concepts. Within this context, students had to memorize formulas without understanding the concepts (Ishartono et al., 2019). It is why Lithner (2012) informed that teaching students to recall formulas in mathematics does not provide them with opportunities to develop their problem-solving skills, reasoning ability, and conceptual understanding. However, through IM spreadsheets, students can easily make graphs, do calculations and solve some mathematical problems (Das, 2019). Thus, IM is suitable for elementary kids since it is adapted to their age and enhances their creativity, active learning, and independent learning (Jalinus & Alim, 2019; Nyirahabimana et al., 2022).

5.3. Research objective #3 challenges of using ICT and mathematics software

Although IM-supported teaching manifested different benefits, some shortcomings were realized during experimentation. These challenges include insufficiency of the training period, insufficient computers for learners, limitation of IM-developed content, and errors in terminologies.

5.3.1. Training period

Before the experimentation period, all mathematics teachers were trained for two days to use the IM in teaching and learning. This was decided like that because the experimentation should be conducted during school activities. Therefore, teachers were free for training at weekends. In addition, the training should be directly followed by the teaching to avoid teachers’ failure to recall the mechanism of teaching using IM. During that training period, teachers were trained in basic computer skills associated with manipulating the IM, developing a lesson plan integrating IM content and instructions, and conducting micro-teaching sessions as trials before the actual teaching with IM. However, teachers found this period insufficient to master the use of IM during teaching. They explained it as follows: “the two days we were trained were not enough. It should have been increased to allow us to get more familiar with the IM by navigating through other units/contents” (Teacher 1). This influenced their mastery of the teaching methodology using IM, and some learners manifested less engagement in learning, especially in lower primary. According to one teacher, “learners are assisting or watching what has been developed before without their involvement, which leads them to learn passively without their engagement. There was no participation in the workings; they simply clicked and saw the answer without engaging in the process of discovering it (Teacher 4). “Many learners were not following (lower level) because these small children need the teacher’s constant attention; they always need the teacher to be nearer to be engaged in class activities. IM is suitable for upper primary; there is no problem but not for small children” (Teacher 6).

From some teachers’ points of view, using IM in lower primary may lead to learners’ failure to develop writing skills, while this is among the general objectives of lower primary. One of them said that “ … their writing abilities did not improve; there was a tendency to leave behind learners writing abilities because they don’t write while learning with IM. The side of skills development in mathematics seems to be left behind; their fingers (dexterity) were not trained to write while they were in lower primary. You know that even teaching how to write a letter takes time and requires different steps” (Teacher 4).

However, other teachers (like teacher 5 below) manifested opposite views about the training period and evidenced their understanding of the methodological consideration while using IM. “The software explains very clearly, where it comes from, and the teacher also starts with developing the lesson traditionally and shows the learners where things are coming from and how to work on it for the learner to fix them. But if the teacher uses the software only without mixing it with the traditional teaching way, learners may take it as a game then fail to develop the understanding, to take risks in their learning, to think, reason, etc.” (Teacher 5).

5.3.2. Teaching various contents

Another challenge raised by teachers is the content developed in IM, which did not cover all lower and upper primary topics to allow teachers to experience IM-supported teaching in various contents. For example, in upper primary, the IM content developed so far was only about integers in primary-4 and primary-5. Their perceptions were formulated as follows: “the first challenge that I noticed was to teach only one chapter with IM. I was wondering how the teaching of other chapters using IM would look like” (Teacher 1). For another teacher, “the software has many gaps, and there are many missing features. For example, the software does not allow learners to rework a failed exercise because it directly brings a new one to replace a failed one. It should also include word problems and show how to work on them” (Teacher 4).

Besides, some topics used terminologies that were found to be different from the ones under use, whereby in the teaching of comparison in primary 2, the traditional textbooks use comparison terms like “greater … than and less than” (Teacher 2) while the software used “bigger … .than and less … than” (Teacher 2). Teachers perceived this as confusing learners and wished for harmonization of the content stipulated by the curriculum and the IM content. They also found it better if the IM-supported teaching was conducted while all learners had their computers. One teacher said: “I taught in two classes; in one class, every child had his computer (P4), and in another whereby I was the only one having a computer. So when all learners have computers (without sharing), learning becomes very easy” (Teacher 1).

The present study findings mentioned the insufficiency of computers as one of the challenges faced by the teacher when using IM software. Our findings are in line with Rajan and Manyala (2021)’s findings who reported challenges linked to ICT integration in teaching and learning, such as the lack of internet and electricity in remote areas, the high cost of ICT equipment and students’ and teachers’ insufficient (or lack of)skills to use ICT tools. Within this context, Naidoo (2020) suggested that teachers and students should be provided with sufficient resources that are easy to use and cost-effective. In addition, there is a need to improve the way IM is constructed since teachers reported that IM software contains errors in terminologies used in IM content which are different from the ones normally used. Furthermore, there is a need to build IM on a wide range of content since teachers reported that IM software content was developed on a few mathematics contents, which restricted the teaching to some mathematics content. Thus, the provided challenges about how they teach mathematics through the use of IM are expected to change the pedagogy in use and take adequate educational policies to improve the teaching and learning of basic mathematics (Zakaria & Daud, 2013).

6. Conclusion

The recent educational aspirations to integrate ICT in teaching and learning activities stressed the importance of teachers’ awareness of the potential of ICT to promote quality education and their experience and perception of using ICT in their daily activities. The present study aimed to explore primary teachers’ lived experiences and how they perceived using Interactive Mathematics (IM) software in mathematics classroom activities. The result of this study revealed that teachers perceived difficulties in teaching mathematics traditionally using chalk and talk, which likely led to learners’ low understanding of mathematics concepts. However, the use of IM in teaching and learning appeared to be beneficial to quality teaching and learning in terms of increasing learners’ understanding and interest to learn as well as easing teachers’ load and lesson planning. Some shortcomings were realized because the IM software was newly used in a classroom situation. These included short training periods for teachers and IM content limitations. This did not likely allow teachers to extensively explore IM’s potential to support quality teaching and learning. Therefore, the study formulated some recommendations for improving the IM software and its effective use in teaching and learning.

6.1. Recommendations and suggestions

From the findings, all teachers appreciated the potential of IM to promote quality education. Therefore, Rwanda Basic Education Board should integrate IM software into the curriculum as an instructional tool to teach primary mathematics and extend the software to other subjects. This implies equipping all schools with ICT facilities and training teachers with basic ICT skills, especially those from remote areas who are far behind in general awareness and use of computers and ICT tools. As it was realized that the software was not completely developed for all contents embodied in the curriculum of mathematics, REB should speed up the complete development of IM, incorporating missing contents and correct terminologies used in IM in the light of those recommended by the CBC. For example, from teachers’ perception, the teaching of comparison should use “greater than” but not “bigger than” as it is in the IM software. Therefore, an extensive diagnosis followed by adjustments of IM content errors of terminologies and others not mentioned in the interview should be initiated and conducted by REB in collaboration with SAKURASHA. Co. Ltd. to develop the final product of IM to be used by Rwandan schools. In addition, from teachers’ perceptions and the researchers’ understanding, the IM development team should involve mathematics teachers to provide the guidelines so that those preparing a certain program can prepare the way it will be delivered using this technology.

Additional information

Additional information is available for this paper

Correction

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our appreciation to Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) through the Sakura-Sha Project, to teachers and schools that participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The University of Rwanda- SIDA Programme and the African Centre of Excellence in Innovative Teaching and Learning Mathematics and Sciences (ACEITLMS) hosted at the Univerity of Rwanda- College of Education funded this research.

Notes on contributors

Innocente Uwineza

Mrs. Innocente Uwineza is a graduate student at the University of Rwanda, College of Education, Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education, Rwanda. Her research interests lie in mathematics education, gender, and ICT.

Alphonse Uworwabayeho

Alphonse Uworwabayeho (Ph.D.), https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2651-1848, is a Professor of Education at the University of Rwanda-College of Education (UR-CE). He holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education, specializing in integrating ICT into teaching and learning mathematics from the University of Bristol, United Kingdom. As part of his professional development, he holds a certificate of successful completion with honors on Mainstreaming Early Childhood Education into Education Sector Planning organized by the IIEP-UNESCO/UNICEF/GPE/MOOC. His research interest lies in teacher professional development on enhancing active teaching and learning. He is an associate member of the African Centre of Excellence for Innovative Teaching and Learning Mathematics and Science (ACEITLMS) based at the UR-CE. He can be contacted at email: [email protected].

Kenya Yokoyama

Kenya Yokoyama, is a CEO and software developer at Sakura-Sha K.K. Tokyo, Japan. He can be contacted via [email protected].