Pre-service teachers’ views of mathematicians within mobile devices: A personalization principle study
Benjamin Shongwe 1 *
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1 University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, SOUTH AFRICA* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Several studies have observed that the presentation tasks in mobile devices in a conversational rather than a formal style may produce a personalization effect and benefit performance. Put another way, students’ cognitive structures tend to function better when they are involved in personalized contexts. However, little attention has been paid to the personalization principle from mathematics contexts, particularly in the southern hemisphere. Framed by the personalization principle, this mixed methods study investigated the effects of presentation mode in a task involving explicitly laying out the theories and obtaining results through logical proofs, ensuring no ambiguity, which entangles the practice of mathematicians. To this end, this mixed methods study selected a convenience sample of 162 pre-service teachers (PSTs) enrolled in an advanced mathematics module in a large public university located in south-eastern South Africa. Following random assignment, eighty-five (n1 = 85) PSTs were presented with material in conversational tone and seventy-seven (n2 = 77) PSTs were presented with material in formal tone. Quantitative analysis revealed, among other things, a significant difference in the responses by the two groups of PSTs, t(160) = 4.83, p < .001, and d = .16. In addition, qualitative analysis of what PSTs say about the functions of pure mathematicians in response to the presentation of the prompt in different contexts showed that personalized contexts foster performance. Considering the limitations of this study, a discussion of the consequences the results of this paper might have on the direction of future mathematics education research is provided.

License

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 21, Issue 11, November 2025, Article No: em2730

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/17343

Publication date: 01 Nov 2025

Online publication date: 27 Oct 2025

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Article Downloads: 26

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