Using WhatsApp in Math Classes in High Schools: Teachers' and Students' Opinions

Digital technology is prevalent in every aspect of life. WhatsApp is very popular because it is free and user-friendly, offers instant messaging, makes communication faster, and it can also be used on smartphones easily. This study aims to reveal teachers’ and students’ opinions about using WhatsApp in Math classes. This study is qualitative, and in order to collect data, semi-structured interview form was used. The study was conducted with the participation of 6 Math teachers and 40 students in a state high school. Convenience sampling was done in this study. For the analysis of the data, descriptive analysis technique was conducted. Furthermore, direct quotations from the participants’ responses were used. The findings of the study are as follows: Teachers and students use WhatsApp in Math classes mostly to communicate with each other, share information (information, assignments, files, and documents), make announcements, or solve math problems. Participants mentioned both advantages and disadvantages of the application. Among the advantages they mentioned are getting instant feedback, no restrictions on time and space, and sharing multimedia messages. On the other hand, the participants emphasized some disadvantages, such as systemic problems (internet outage, problems with uploading and opening documents); difficulty in communicating with large groups, understanding solutions to math problems, checking assignments; the application occupying too much space on the phone; and becoming addicted to using phones too much. Participants also suggested some upgrades for the application such as being more user-friendly for math classes and having a feature of solving math problems online