Social Media Usage Among University Students of Mathematics Education in Zambia: A Quantitative Analysis Approach.

Social media in most Zambian schools, colleges and universities are not yet a sustainable solution for the traditional problems of education. Nonetheless, they provide opportunities that are changing the way we learn especially during this deadly pandemic Omicron variant. Hence this study sought to address a single research question: How do student teachers currently use social media both for personal use and for teaching/learning mathematics? The study was aimed at exploring the impact of and the jole social media can play in mathematics education via social iletworking among university students. This study is projected to stimulatefurther discussions on the way to embrace digital platforms in mathematics education whilst simultaneously maximizing their benefits. The study utilized quantitative-methods techniques which aims at analyzing the various strategies of the integration of social media technologies into the teaching and learning processes Of mathematics based on the Activity Theory CAT) and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as the theoretical frameworks of the study. Cluster ancilysis techniques were performed over thedata collectedfrom 102 participants by completing quantitative survey questionnaires. Results highlights that cluster 1 recorded the highest score displaying that majority of the students agree that social media platforms have a place in their personal academic and professional lives such as in their matheniatics teaching subject. Results further disclose that year, gender and age have a statistically significant impact in clustering students in terms Of social media usage in mathematics education. Implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]