Students, Computers and Mathematics: How do they interact in the Teaching-Learning Process? (An Empirical Study on Accounting, Management and Marketing Undergraduate Students)

Abstract

The study takes the scale of Galbraith and Hines (1998, 2000) and arguments exposed by Galbraith, Hines and Pemberton (1999), Cretchley, Harman, Ellerton and Fogarty (2000), McDougall and Karadag (2009), Gómez-Chacón and Haines, (2008), Goldenberg (2003), Moursund (2003), about Mathematics confidence, Mathematics motivation, Computer confidence, Computer motivation, Computer and Mathematics interaction and Mathematics engagement. In the same way the arguments of García and Edel (2008), García-Santillán and Escalera (2011), García-Santillán, Escalera and Edel (2011) about variables associated with the use of ICT as a didactic strategy in teaching-learning process in order to establish a relationship between students perception with the teaching-learning process and technology. Therefore this paper examines the relationships between students attitudes towards mathematics and technology in a study carried out in the Universidad Autónoma of San Luis Potosí Unidad Zona Media. 214 questionnaires were applied to undergraduate students in Accounting, Management and Marketing. The statistical procedure was the factorial analysis with extracted principal component. The Statistics Hypothesis: Ho: ρ = 0 have no corelation Ha: ρ ≠0 have correlation. Statistic test to prove: Χ², Esphericyty test of Bartlett, KMO (Kaiser-Meyer_Olkin) Significancy level: α =0.05; p< 0.01, p<0.05 Decition rule is: Reject Ho if c² calculated > c² tablas. The results obtained of sphericyty test of Bartlett KMO (.703), Chi square X² 92.928 > c² tables, Sig. 0.00 < p 0.01, MSA (CONFIMA .731; MOTIMA .691; COMPIMA .741; CONFICO .686 and INTEMAC .694) provide evidence to reject Ho. Thus, the variables implicated Mathematics confidence, Mathematics motivation, Computer confidence, Computer motivation, Computer-Mathematics interaction and Mathematics engagement, help to understand the student’s attitude toward mathematics and technology.

Keywords: Mathematics confidence, Mathematics motivation, Computer confidence, Computer motivation, Computer and Mathematics interaction, Mathematics engagement.