| dc.description.abstract | In this study, we developed a tablet-based application, namely ubiquitous fraction (U-Fraction) to assist elementary school students to learn fraction and decimal with authentic contextual support. We divided this study into two sub studies, i.e. pilot study and main study. In pilot study, an experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of students’ learning behavior toward their fraction learning achievements using U-Fraction, which allowed students to explore and verify fraction learning in authentic contexts. Three topics of fraction included are fraction concept/comparison, simplification and addition/subtraction. Totally, 80 fifth grade students were assigned and divided into three groups, one experimental group and two control groups. The first and second control group learned fraction using web-based application and traditional teaching method, while experimental group learned fraction using U-Fraction. After the experiment, the results shown the experimental group performed better than those in both control groups. The reason was that the graphical representation in authentic context facilitated students to learn fraction using U-Fraction. Multimedia whiteboard like text and voice explanation provided by U-Fraction also helped students to do more practices by themselves and fully explain their solutions. Furthermore, this pilot study revealed that learning behavior variable i.e. note-taking (text), total fraction skill and assignment score variable had a significant correlation with post-test. We also found students’ perception toward the system were acceptable. To extend the findings of pilot study, the main study based on collaborative learning was conducted. Totally, 54 fourth grade students divided into two group, i.e. experimental group and control group. The topic selected was decimal learning such as decimal rounding and estimation. Students in control group learned decimal using traditional teaching method. On the other hand, students in experimental group learned decimal using U-Fraction collaboratively in these activities, i.e., problem posing by designing questions, problem solving by answering to the student and teacher’s questions, and peer assessment. The results were consistent compared with the result of the pilot study that the experimental group perform better than control group in
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posttest score. It was also revealed that multimedia text-and voice explanation consistently correlated with posttest. Multimedia text and voice explanation help students to express their own ideas and solutions frequently. Moreover, they also can share their own recordings and notes as well as listen to others recorded files for self-studying and reflections. Furthermore, from three variables related to authentic contextual support from three activities such as explaining answer by picture-taking, commenting by picture taking and quality of multiple choice answer, only explaining answer by picture-taking correlated with posttest. This function enabled students to exploit the graphical representation in authentic context for verifying and answering to the decimals problems. Students’ motivations also could be improved by enabling them to learn outside the class and observe surrounding. Another finding showed by multiple regression analysis result that the total of correct answer could strongly predict posttest score. Student’s perception toward the system as well as their motivation were positively perceived. In final, the accumulation result of pilot and main study contributes important implications along with conclusion and suggestion for the future research. | en_US |