Knowledge and attitude of students towards the use of phones in teaching and learning of biology: a case study of third-year biology students, Makerere University

Abstract

Smart phones are of great importance and one of the most commonly used mobile devices among University students due to their portability and other educational roles. In Uganda today, the use of smart phones in the teaching and learning processes not only in biology but also in other subjects has substituted physical classes due to COVID – 19 pandemic that has greatly affected the education sector. This has reduced on the spread of the virus and boosted ICT among many students through acquisition of knowledge and skills needed in the teaching and learning processes. This study aimed at investigating the knowledge and attitude third year biology students of Makerere University have towards the use of phones in teaching and learning of biology with focus on the knowledge and attitude of biology students towards the use of mobile phones in the teaching and learning of biology, mobile phone applications which were frequently used by biology students and kinds of photos which were found in mobile phone galleries of biology students. The targeted population was 70 Makerere University third year biology students at school of education. The data was collected using questionnaire and open interviews. The quantitative data collected was analyzed using SPSS software version 21 while the qualitative data collected was edited and analyzed by coding to generate themes. The results showed that most of the students understood when they used smart phones (78.0%) as well majority of the students agreed that using mobile phone applications makes them enjoy learning (52.0%), few students strongly agreed that using mobile phones in learning is a motivation for them (42.0%). 60.0% agreed that use of mobile phone in learning biology is helpful and effective. 60.0% also strongly agreed that they use mobile phones to access biological information, 64.0% strongly agreed that they use communication applications such as WhatsApp to share biology notes, 54.0% strongly agreed that they use communication applications like WhatsApp to share schedules and venues for biology discussions. Also WhatsApp was the commonly used application in learning of biology (86.0%), Google chrome being the mostly used browser during the learning of biology. Majority of students, 66.0% agreed on their mobile phone galleries containing images of biology notes, 52.0% agreed on their mobile phones containing images of biology specimens, 42.0% disagreed on their mobile phones containing more academic images than non-academic images, 36.0% and 34.0% agreed and disagreed respectively on their phone galleries containing images of wildlife and 38.0% agreed on their phones containing images of social events. The study therefore, recommends that the government through its Ministry of ICT and National Guidance should provide free access to internet services to enable all students have access to the important education information and this also eases research, discussions, and communication of learning schedules and catch up of missed sessions in case of absenteeism through recordings using suitable applications or via zoom