Abstract:

Social media is present in students’ lives. While it may be a distractive element, social media may also have potential to support mathematics learning. Curriculum guidelines emphasise the importance of relational understanding of mathematical concepts, in contrast with an emphasis on instrumental understanding, which relies on the memorisation of procedures. This qualitative study investigates how creating videos on TikTok™ can contribute to the development of students’ relational mathematical understanding. The research involved a 7th-grade class. Students worked in groups to produce explanatory videos on revisited mathematical topics, highlighting essential aspects and proposing challenges. Data included students’ multimedia productions, field notes from classroom observations, and recordings of group discussions and interviews. Data were collected in two rounds of video production. Results revealed a high level of student engagement in the video production process, showing creativity and autonomy in the choice of examples used. However, this engagement had little influence on the type of mathematical understanding displayed, which remained predominantly at the instrumental level. In the second round of video productions, students were given more explicit orientations regarding the use of examples. However, they remained focused on applying rules and procedures without exploring the underlying mathematical reasoning. In most cases, the groups did not fully complete the respective task, which limited the results obtained and hindered the evaluation of the impact of the use of examples on the development of relational mathematical understanding. Challenges related to time management and collaboration outside school hours may have contributed to students’ difficulties in reaching a relational understanding of the topics addressed.

Keywords:

Relational understanding, instrumental understanding, TikTok™, examples.