Article Gold Open Access 2025

Perspectives of secondary school teachers on the strengths and limitations of digital mathematics textbooks: an exploratory research in China

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
Journal · Vol. 12 · Issue 1 · Art. 270
Abstract

Wide developments in technology provide major changes and opportunities for digital mathematics textbooks. In this context, the swift incorporation of digital textbooks into educational frameworks explores the potential and limitations of enriching mathematical understanding and instructional methodologies. Therefore, this research aimed to analyze the perspectives of secondary school teachers in China on the strengths and weaknesses of digital mathematics textbooks for learning. An exploratory analysis by semi-structured interviews was implemented with the participation of five secondary school teachers who attended training and used digital mathematics textbooks. Thematic analysis was conducted, and coding was used as the basic analytic strategy. The results showed that digital mathematics textbooks were supportive instructional media capable of supporting different teaching and learning activities as well as visualizing concepts. These media were considered simple and practical as well as valuable to strengthen teaching skills with technology. However, textbooks possessed minimum pedagogical features, practices, and interfaces. The results also reported the need to incorporate more pedagogical tools and interactive elements within textbooks to enhance educational value. Furthermore, these insights called for ongoing professional development to effectively integrate and use digital textbooks in pedagogy. © The Author(s) 2025.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Not provided

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations
Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China, National Research Center for Educational Materials, Beijing, Beijing, China
Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Universitas Muhammadiyah Bangka Belitung, Pangkal Pinang, Bangka-Belitung, Indonesia
Funding & Acknowledgements
Grant: 2023GH-ZDA-JJ-Y-04
This research was funded by the National Research Center for Educational Materials, Beijing, China, (Project Number: 2023GH-ZDA-JJ-Y-04).
References 10 References
1 Acikgül, Kübra, Effects of Geogebra supported micro teaching applications and technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) game practices on the TPACK levels of prospective teachers, Education and Information Technologies, 25, 3, pp. 2023-2047, (2020)
2 Agency Xn 2022 China Releases National Standards for Digital Textbooks in Primary Middle Schools Beijing Review
3 Al-Qadri, Abdo Hasan, Academic expectations among international students from North-Western China: A case of technology use during and post COVID-19, Frontiers in Psychology, 13, (2022)
4 Almekhlafi, Abdurrahman Ghaleb, The effect of E-books on Preservice student teachers’ achievement and perceptions in the United Arab Emirates, Education and Information Technologies, 26, 1, pp. 1001-1021, (2021)
5 Al Ishlah J Pendidik, (2021)
6 Baldeón, Johan, A conceptual model for educational game authoring: A showcase in math games, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), 10289 LNCS, pp. 347-361, (2017)
7 Bernard, Martin, Development of high school student work sheets using VBA for microsoft word trigonometry materials, Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1315, 1, (2019)
8 Breit-Smith, Allison, Sequence text structure intervention during interactive book reading of expository picture books with preschool children with language impairment, Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 33, 3, pp. 287-304, (2017)
9 Bikowski, Dawn, Interactive digital textbooks and engagement: A learning strategies framework, Language Learning and Technology, 22, 1, pp. 119-136, (2018)
10 Chatrangsan, Maneerut, The effect of typeface and font size on reading text on a tablet computer for older and younger people, Proceedings of the 16th Web For All 2019 Personalization - Personalizing the Web, W4A 2019, (2019)
Quick Actions
Full Text via DOI
Citation Metrics
0
Times Cited (Scopus)

References 10
Document Identifiers