Trends and Research on the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics in Higher Education Institutions Through Mobile Learning

Introduction

The teaching of mathematics in higher education institutions (HEIs), presents a challenge for educators in the process of designing, implementing, and innovating new didactic or pedagogical proposals. Some options put the use of mobile devices in their proposals due to their benefits and positive results in the learning processes of the students. Due to the steep growth in access to these devices and advantages such as immediacy, ubiquity, and situated learning, among others, their implementation by the academic community in science and mathematics education has been intensified (Almeida & Araújo, 2016).

In the educational field, many students have mobile devices at their fingertips. This has led to the predominance of the design and development of mobile educational applications as support for teaching and learning processes within the work of researchers and teachers (Baek & Guo, 2019). Additionally, the possibility of carrying out intervention processes outside the classroom, anytime and anywhere, places mobile learning (m-learning) at the top of educational research (Ozcelik & Acarturk, 2011).

In the context of mathematics, m-learning has been very useful and has provided alternatives to traditional classes (Güler et al., 2021). Research shows that students' perception, motivation, and engagement are coupled with their attitudes toward mathematics and academic achievement (Singh et al., 2002; Fast et al., 2010). This can be achieved through strategies guided by mobile devices because, according to Traxler (2018), these devices encourage the exchange of ideas, and build spaces to share and develop knowledge, elements that can be fundamental to generating positive attitudes and providing approaches to overcoming the difficulties of mathematics and the resolution of mathematical problems (understanding of concepts, application, and contextualization of learning).

By conceiving problem-solving in mathematics as the performance of mathematical tasks that have the potential to provide intellectual challenges to foster the development of skills and promote understanding and mathematical reasoning (Novita, 2012), researchers seek to mitigate the difficulties presented through the inclusion of scenarios with learning activities mediated by educational mobile applications, which support the teaching of problem-solving in mathematics and have an impact on improving the understanding and contextualization of learning in students (Rojas, et al., 2020; Arifin, et al., 2021).

In this paper, different scientific publications were analyzed in which mobile learning is articulated in the teaching and learning of mathematics in HEIs, with a particular interest in the development of problem-solving skills. The search was carried out in the main collection of the Web of Science (WOS) database and in specialized mobile learning journals. This database contains high-impact scientific documentation worldwide, which allows a rigorous and assertive systematization process to be carried out. This process is informed by the proposal of Bacca, Baldiris, Fabregat and Graf (2014) regarding the use and trends of augmented reality in education and adopts the principles of systematic review from Kitchenham (2004), which are planning, review and review report.