To understand the contributions of this research and the existing gap in the results from previous studies, we address the tension in this study by presenting the results it brings to the relevant field. Globally, many studies have examined the integration and benefits of social media both inside and outside classrooms (Tess, 2013). However, researchers cannot directly apply global findings to the Zambian context, which highlights the need to focus on mathematics education. We aimed to reduce the knowledge gap. Incorporating social media into the teaching, studying, and learning of mathematics is both important and new to investigate because the formal educational system in Zambia does not officially include any social media technological features to support studying. This situation occurs because Zambian higher learning institutions use low levels of technology, which researchers attribute to limited technological resources (Sintema, 2020).

Therefore, we conduct the present study with undergraduate students in mathematics education to explore students’ use of social media in the context of a “standard” mathematics subject and other mobile applications, compared to 100% in-class mathematics learning. This paper aims to investigate pre-service teachers’ social media use and its effect on the learning and teaching of mathematics as a scaffolding tool. We argue that pre-service teachers can learn from informal learning situations by using available resources to create meaningful learning experiences in formal education. This assertion aligns with (Perienen, 2020), whose study shows that students learn mathematics better with effective and convenient technological tools. Not surprisingly, online instructors, tutors, and students use mobile technologies in universities around the world ((Snoussi & Kaleel Kaleel, 2019) ;(Valunaite Oleskeviciene & Šliogerienė, 2020), ;(Ifijeh et al., 2019) ; (Idiedo, 2020)). In the present study, the key questions are: how do pre-service teachers use mobile technologies such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WeChat, e-mail, and other web 2.0 tools in online communities for learning mathematics? Do mathematics education pre-service teachers believe that the official use of social media can enhance their learning and teaching experience in mathematics?

Therefore, this study will focus on providing a detailed insight into how social media technologies influence the teaching and learning of mathematics at Copperbelt University (CBU), and to identify which opportunities remain available or unavailable for future improvement of both processes. This approach aligns with previous studies that have examined classroom innovation with social media in higher education (Falcó et al., 2020); (Giannakoulopoulos et al., 2020); (Hennessy et al., 2019). The first objective of this study is to explore the role that social media currently plays and may play in mathematics education through social networking among pre-service teachers. The second objective is to examine aspects of university pre-service teachers’ related online activities that may motivate them to participate in learning. Finally, we aim to open a discussion on whether and how the use of social media tools may affect the development of 21st-century skills among both learners and teachers.

(Mostafa, 2015) defined social media in the Web 2.0 context as “… the usage of Web-based tools like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Gmail, Yahoo mail, Instagram, Google, etc that connect people and allow them to share information, videos, pictures, and so on…” The role of emerging social media may offer new opportunities to reinforce teaching and learning experiences in Zambia. (Zepke & Leach, 2010) argued that motivation and student dispositions influence their ability to engage in interactive learning. A user can actively participate in activities on social media platforms by sharing content and opinions, debating, and creating different kinds of groups for various needs (Alabdulkareem, 2015).

This research on teachers’ use of social media in mathematics education was motivated by a broader reflection in Alabdulkareem’s study (Alabdulkareem, 2015) , which exclusively analyzed the use of social media in the context of learning science. That study represents one of the most in-depth investigations of teachers’ and students’ perspectives on social media use in learning. Pre-service teachers arguably need both digital resources and the use of flipped instructional methods (Araujo et al., 2017), such as assigning instructional videos or multimedia for students to watch as homework and completing problems or exercise sets in class, to teach mathematics effectively in mathematics classrooms.

Recent studies have steadily increased, with a primary focus on the use of social media in learning. Several scholars have conducted studies on social media use and have reported significant knowledge required in the context of teaching mathematics (Sheikh et al., 2019)(Lau, 2017)(Delegge & Wangler, 2017)(Chun & Lee, 2017)(Moorthy et al., 2018)(Chukwuere & Bonga, 2018)(Park et al., 2018)(Mahmud et al., 2018).

Not surprisingly, because of its popularity, many recent studies have examined Facebook use (García-Domingo et al., 2017)(Cuesta et al., 2019)(Madge et al., 2009)(Kabilan, 2016)(Santos & Čuta, 2015)(Gwena et al., 2018) and the use of WhatsApp (García-Domingo et al., 2018).

Although much research on social media usage has been conducted in various fields, such as psychology, medical health, medical professions, the public sector, and cardiovascular imaging ((Ayanso & Moyers, 2015) ; (Liyanapathirana, 2019) ; (Parwani et al., 2019) ; (Demirtepe-Saygılı, 2019)), there is a lack of research on social media usage by university students focusing on mathematics. Against this background, we aim to address this knowledge gap in the field of mathematics within the specific context of Zambia. General findings from previous studies show that people use social media primarily for communication, collaborative discussions, patient education, and dissemination of research results. In addition, the government and other public service agencies use social media platforms as the main channel for communication and service provision.

(Tess, 2013) conducted a literature review of research on the role of social media in higher education classrooms. He states that most studies examining learning outcomes and student engagement related to social media use in university settings report positive findings. (Lim et al., 2014) found that 90% of students used social media for academic purposes, such as answering assignments, collaborating, sourcing and sharing information, participating in discussions, and sharing class schedules and activities.

(Piotrowski, 2015) found that over 50% of business students and business faculty members held a positive attitude toward integrating social media into teaching. (Dogoriti et al., 2014) found that social media platforms were beneficial for teaching and learning. Additionally, most pre-service teachers reported positive values and attitudes toward using social media during learning. This use of social media helps them broaden their social networks within a learning environment. A few participants viewed social media platforms as tools that can enhance the learning process among students.

Exploring the best way to use social media technologies in classrooms remains a priority research subject and a “continuing challenge” in mathematics education (Handbook of International Research in Mathematics Education, 2015). The increase in digital devices has had significant effects on mathematics

curricula, and there has been a continuous rise in instructors flipping their instruction (Araujo et al., 2017). For example, when teaching mathematics, although instructors may use pre-made videos, many choose to make their own videos. Some instructors have found that their students prefer instructor-made videos (Palmer, 2015).

There is increasing interest in African higher education in the use of computers, tablets, and cell phones to facilitate the learning process ((Bass, 2007); (Hennessy et al., 2010)). All these devices include various built-in applications that enable users to participate in online social networks. Computers and their integrated social media applications are increasingly changing traditional teaching methods. Research (Ayub et al., 2010) has shown that social media use in instruction generally improves the quality of teaching. In addition, many African countries encourage educators to use digital resources in their instruction and to plan strategies for effective practice (Hennessy et al., 2010). The use of digital devices, such as computers, phones, and tablets, in African education systems is increasing with the aim of improving the quality of teacher training (e.g., (Hennessy et al., 2010) ; (Ottevanger et al., 2007)). We frame this current study on these premises.

In the present study, we use Activity Theory (AT) as the framework to guide data analysis and interpretation in order to investigate the components that influence undergraduates' interests in online interactions through Web 2.0 innovations. (Hasan & Kazlauskas, 2014) indicate that AT is grounded in the work of the Russian psychologist Vygotsky and his students, specifically Leontiev, during the 1920s. 2014Engeström () reconceptualized Vygotsky’s three-level triangle of human activity mediated by artifacts or tools and Leontiev’s three-level triangle of socially mediated activity. Engeström developed an extension of the AT model that comprises six related principles (Figure 1): subject, object, and community, which relate to Leontiev, as well as division of labor, rules, and tools.

(Engeström, 2014) elaborated on Leontiev’s notion of human activity and represented it as embedded triangles (Figure 1). The Subject–Object–Community triangle of pre-human activity is expanded with societally constituted forms of mediation, which include instruments, rules, and division of labor. Therefore, (Engeström, 2014) adds the component of a community that shares the same object. In this model, he also includes guidelines that mediate between the learning network and the subject, and establish a division of work between the network and the object. Finally, (Engeström, 2014) gives all the definitions of the six related principles of the theory.

The first principle is the involvement of the object. The framework includes social and cultural properties, such as community-oriented or collaborative learning in an online course. In today's online classroom, every mathematics pre-service teacher can have a front row seat, which increases opportunities for participation and engagement. (Preston et al., 2010) found that most learners reported that they learn in a similar way on internet learning platforms, such as WhatsApp groups, Facebook pages, Twitter texts, and Google+ online interactions, as they do in lecture settings held in classroom halls in the presence of other learners.

Subjects are on-screen characters engaged in activities. This represents the individual level of AT; undergraduates are likely subjects involved in collaborative learning. (Lu & Churchill, 2014) found that the educator plays a central role in guiding undergraduates in online learning. This finding may suggest that mathematics pre-service teachers are expected to take a leading role in online mathematics activities and serve as tutors or instructors on social media platforms. They collaborate with fellow mathematics colleagues in the creation and sharing of knowledge during the mathematics learning process. AT encourages professionals to renew knowledge through social connections (Tillema & Orland-Barak, 2006).

Networking represents a social context within the framework and a network level of AT; all participants engage in the activity system. For example, a group of undergraduates engaged in learning based on social interaction for constructing and sharing knowledge constitutes a learning network. (Hewitt, 2004) used AT to assess learning networks in web-based learning environments and to investigate the components that affect pre-service teachers' participation in online networks. Such pre-service teachers can create online community platforms for learning mathematics, such as mathematics WhatsApp groups, YouTube channels, Facebook pages, Quora spaces, and Twitter, for collaboration, discussion, feedback, and sharing of mathematical content. Through these communities, teachers can also create school portals for administrative purposes and the fastest dissemination of information to students and faculty members.

Instruments or tools represent a mechanical aspect of AT. In the framework, devices mediate communication between networks by transmitting social information. This includes the artifacts that actors, such as pre-service teachers, use within the framework. Instruments affect on-screen structure interactions, which culture also affects. Teachers who possess technological skills and knowledge of how to use social media platforms, such as YouTube, Skype, Life-size, Zoom, and Viber, can adopt social media tools, especially http://journals.ums.ac.id/index.php/jramathedu when these tools are user friendly and useful for online classroom situations. These components may influence undergraduates' attitudes toward selecting web-based learning networks to develop and share mathematics. Teachers with this knowledge can use different teaching methods and strategies and prepare mathematics lesson plans that focus on concepts and skills in topics enhanced by social software tools.

Division of labor refers to a hierarchical structure of activity or the allocation of tasks among actors within the system. Mathematics teachers can share or divide tasks among themselves. Engestrom introduced this principle to enable teachers to mediate between the learning community and the subject, and to establish a division of labor between the "community" and the "object." Mathematics teachers need to understand this concept because preparing future teachers to use social media platforms is one of several important challenges faced by teacher education programs today. Appropriate use of social media technologies affects all areas of mathematics education, including what mathematics is taught, how mathematics is taught, and how mathematics is assessed in secondary schools. Teachers need to understand how to divide their labor to address the school curriculum using new teaching approaches, including the integration of social software technology in classroom interactions.

Rules serve as standard guidelines that control pre-service teachers' participation in the system of activities. For example, rules govern conversations between pre-service teachers in online-oriented learning. Teachers must create and provide rules of engagement for any online platform established for mathematics, such as WhatsApp groups, Facebook pages, or other platforms. Adhering to these rules enables teachers to post only content relevant to mathematics. On most social media platforms, group administrators moderate and guide group members' discussions, enforce the rules, and remind members about the group's purpose, which, in this context, is mathematics education.

AT is the conceptual framework that enables scholars to identify factors that affect undergraduates' investment in online connections. Analysts often use AT to investigate human-PC social interactions (Nardi, 1996). Therefore, in this study, AT provided a reasonable framework to design, understand, and improve learning through online learning platforms.

The present study forms part of a larger existing project that used a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design. We chose the mixed-methods research approach in this study to seek participants’ input, which provides a comprehensive view and offers a detailed description of the situation under study. Furthermore, the rationale for using the mixed-methods approach is to gain a better understanding of the problem statement and to increase the credibility of our findings. However, for the purpose of our current study, we preferred a quantitative-method approach because the quantitative data collected and its analysis provided a general understanding of the problem statement (Creswell, 2014). In addition, we adopted a quantitative survey research design (see Fig. 2) because of the type of research questions we seek to answer and the statistical analysis techniques performed. For example, this quantitative study addresses two questions.

The first question concerns pre-service teachers’ use of social media platforms for mathematics e-learning, while the second addresses pre-service teachers’ official use of social media technologies in mathematics education. In addition, the quantitative method and its subsequent analysis techniques aim to test the relationships between pre-service

teachers’ use of social media and variables such as year of study and gender, social media use skills and classroom integration, social media use and mathematics pedagogy, profiles of social media use in mathematics, and future classroom integration. Therefore, the results reported in this study represent only a portion of the quantitative analysis conducted, which aligns with a post hoc quasi-experimental design using a survey technique. We will publish a comprehensive set of results for both quantitative and qualitative analysis when the project is finalized. The visual representation below summarizes all the steps that will be taken in this study during this quantitative phase.

We used SPSS 24.0 software to analyze the data. We applied descriptive statistics to explore the data. We performed analysis of variance (ANOVA) to examine mean differences in Zambian mathematics pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward the use of social media based on gender and year of study. We used multiple linear regression analysis (MA) to predict the regression model for social media use in the teaching of mathematics. We also ran MA to examine the relationship between pre-service teachers’ use of social media to support their mathematics learning and the various types of social media platforms used to participate in

online mathematics discourses and in mathematics classrooms. For each social media application, participants rated their use of social media platforms in their mathematics learning at the University by responding to 12 listed items on a four-point Likert scale (1 = Non-user: Never heard of it or never used it, 2 = Infrequent User: use it sometimes, 3 = Frequent User: use it regularly, and 4 = Contributor: frequently use this application to both read content and contribute content), as shown in Table 1.

As a first step in the analysis process, we tested the validity and reliability of the research instrument. We considered this necessary because we aimed to obtain high-quality research results. Therefore, we performed Cronbach’s alpha tests in SPSS for each variable (item) of the questionnaire to test internal consistency. Most of the items on the questionnaire performed well on this test, as shown in Table 1.

Table 1 shows that the alpha coefficient for the 13 items is 0.747. The 17 items have an alpha coefficient of 0.733, the 12 items have = 0.713, and the 9 items have = 0.710. These values suggest that the items have relatively high internal consistency, because a reliability coefficient of 0.70 or higher is considered acceptable in most social science research situations. These results show that nearly all 62 items are closely related to each other as a group on the scale and fall within acceptable levels. The low alpha value ( = 0.650) recorded may result from the low average of the inter-item correlation or the low number of items.

Results from Table 2 show respondents’ choices of social media platforms used to support their mathematics discourses. Based on the AT of this study, results indicated that social networking platforms, such as Facebook, had the highest preference (78.4%). Communication tools, such as MSN chat, email, and text messaging, followed at 77.5%. Wikis, such as Wikipedia and Wikispaces, also accounted for 77.5%, as did video sharing platforms, such as YouTube. Document managing and editing tools, such as Google documents and Dropbox, accounted for 60.8%. Discussion forums, such as Yahoo answers and ask.com, accounted for 48%, and social news platforms, such as Reddit, accounted for 32.4%. These results agree with Tsai et al. (2010), who also used AT to examine social interaction in students’ online learning and the digital tools they employed. The current findings are replicated in a study by 2016Sharma & Shukla (), who reported that among Indian college students, social media was used as a less expensive online medium for chatting with friends,

keeping in touch with family, and sharing pictures, documents, and videos. Consistent with 2019Anna (), the current results suggest that mathematics pre-service teachers at CBU primarily used social media platforms such as YouTube to watch, download, or upload mathematics videos related to their classroom lectures. We also argue that the use of social media in mathematics learning processes would reduce learner–teacher dependency because pre-service teachers can learn independently through online interactions. However, pre-service teachers expressed concerns about possible unfamiliarity with other social media platforms, such as Life-size.

The results in Table 3 show that at the 95% confidence level, there were no significant differences in the mean scores of pre-service teachers by year of study for either males or females. When verifying the hypothesis, the overall results indicate that the use of social media in mathematics pedagogy did not depend on gender or year of study. In comparison with previous studies related to gender, although these studies focused only on Facebook as a social media platform, other researchers have found different results. For instance, (García-Domingo et al., 2017) found a different pattern of Facebook use between males and females. In their study, females appeared more active than males. However, the findings in this study did not specifically reference such differences. On average, both males and females,

regardless of year of study, used social media platforms moderately in mathematics activities. Based on the AT applied in this study, we find that both male and female pre-service teachers are motivated and positively oriented to participate in online communities to share knowledge related to mathematics courses. This finding aligns with (Murphy & Littlejohn, 2019), who also used AT to analyze the social networking of participants.

Table 3 shows respondents’ agreement with 17 items on a three-point Likert scale (1 = never, 2 = sometimes, 3 = regularly) regarding how frequently they use social media to support their mathematics learning in mathematics courses. The aggregate score represents the sum of agreement for pre-service teachers who either “sometimes” or “regularly” use social media to support their mathematics learning.

3a-Use Facebook chat (or MSN or texting) to contact a friend to get help with a class assignment, 3b-Use e-mails more effectively in communicating with my mathematics lecturers than in my class, 3c-Use WhatsApp to get help with mathematics assignments/home works/research works etc, 3d-Use e-learning mathematics materials available via social media to learn maths, 3e-Use Skype (or some kind of live casting service) to connect with a friend or a group to work on a class assignment, 3f-Ask a mathematics question on an online forum such as Ask.com, 3g-Collaborate with a classmate on an online document using Google docs (or something similar), 3h-Create or join a Facebook group with classmates to share homework, links, and to discuss class content, 3i-Search YouTube for a video to learn about a mathematics concept, 3j-Access Wikipedia to read about a mathematics concept, 3k-Answer or comment on a mathematics related topic on a forum such as Ask.com, 3l-Read a mathematics related blog or news items, 3m-Follow mathematicians or maths related feeds on Twitter, 3n-Save and share maths related bookmarks on Delicious (or some other social bookmarking service), 3o-Post mathematics related content on a blog, 3p-Store apps on my Smartphone that are useful for learning mathematics, and 3q-Share and/or post videos related to my mathematics learning.

Based on the theoretical framework of this study, we found it straightforward to analyze and understand the results presented in Table 3. AT allowed us to describe and analyze the structure, development, and context of learning activities mediated by mobile technologies. Using AT as our lens, results from Table 3 show that the most popular social media platform used in mathematics activities was YouTube (97%). Specifically, most participants (item 3i) reported either sometimes (18.6%) or regularly (78.4%) searching YouTube for videos to learn about mathematics concepts, totaling 97%. This was followed by 94.1% of respondents who either sometimes (23.5%) or regularly (70.6%) used WhatsApp to get help with mathematics assignments, homework, or research (item 3c). Additionally, 88.2% would either sometimes or regularly access Wikipedia to read about mathematics concepts (item 3j). Furthermore, 79.4% use Facebook (item 3a), 68.6% use e-learning platforms (item 3d), 66.7% use Ask.com (item 3f), and 61.7% use Gmail (item 3b). In contrast, pre-service teachers expressed significant concerns about possible unfamiliarity with other social media technologies such as Tumblr, Twitter, Delicious, Zoom, Life-size, Flickr, and Reddit, which resulted in low usage scores. For example, 74.5% of participants never follow mathematicians or mathematics-related feeds on Twitter (item 3m), and 73.5% never save or share mathematics-related bookmarks on Delicious (item 3n). The high use of YouTube is not surprising because the application is user friendly. (Anna, 2019) stated that "YouTube is one of the most important applications downloaded by pre-service teachers on their Smartphones. Pre-service teachers use YouTube, in addition to being an entertainment medium, as a source of information to search for lecture material; pre-service teachers use YouTube to find tutorial videos related to lecture material." Pre-service teachers also use WhatsApp, Facebook, Gmail, and other e-learning platforms when they need to access assignments from lecturers, upload assignments, and obtain information related to lectures (Anna, 2019). This is encouraging because pre-service teachers at CBU do not only use social media for social purposes, but the majority view it as a tool for teaching and learning mathematics. Consistent with (Wickramanayake & Jika, 2017), social media tools function through different platforms to provide various services to their members, and the participants’ choices of platforms and their use in mathematics teaching and learning are summarized in Tables 2 and 4.

The results indicate that the variables added statistically significantly to the prediction of pre-service teachers’ use of social media platforms in the teaching of mathematics, as F (1, 97) = 6.015, p = 0.016 < 0.05. Table 5 shows that positive correlations exist between pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward the use of social media and year of study, gender, social media use skills, classroom integration and mathematics pedagogy, profiles of social media use in mathematics, and future classroom social media integration. This implies that pre-service teachers have a strong desire to incorporate social media tools in the teaching and learning of mathematics in the future. These results appear to agree strongly with the findings of Acarli and Sağlam (2015), whose study participants were also eager to use social media in their professional lives. This is notable because AT examines online interactions beyond personal benefits. At the professional level, pre-service teachers work cooperatively and collaboratively as a community 2017(see, e.g., Mills, ) to learn and integrate social media in mathematics classrooms.

Results from Table 6 show the variability in pre-service teachers’ use of social media in mathematics teaching, as explained by five statistically significant predictors (see Table 5). The adjusted R square accounts for the number of terms in the model. It increases from model 1 to model 5, which means that the new terms added improve the model fit more than expected by chance alone. Therefore, it is logical to conclude that social media tools have a place in pre-service teachers’ mathematics teaching as they progress from the third year to

the fourth year of their training program. When students enroll as first-year students at CBU, most already have exposure to social media technologies and have registered accounts that they use for personal and professional purposes. Analysis of the average R-values of the respondents shows that, by the end of their Bachelor’s degree program, new graduates are very enthusiastic about using social media in their own mathematics classrooms. These results strongly agree with those reported by 2018Yusuf and Bolaji (), who found that most participants wished to include all social media applications for mobile learning and wanted their lecturers to assign tasks that could be solved through social media on a mobile learning platform. In this sense, pre-service teachers in the current study adopted and accepted the use of social media platforms to engage in academic activities.

The general form of the equation to predict "Social media use in the teaching of mathematics" is given by

y=0.242a+338b+411c+456d+499e.

The estimated model coefficients indicate a positive prediction regarding pre-service teachers’ future integration of social media in the teaching and learning of mathematics. The findings in the current study strongly align with those of 2018Akakandelwa & Walubita () at the University of Zambia, who reported that most of the sampled students used social media to obtain new information, maintain contact with friends, and complete school work.

This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of how social media technologies are considered in the teaching and learning of mathematics in Zambian universities by examining the specific situation of CBU, which is one of the most relevant universities in the field of mathematics education in Zambia. Additionally, this study seeks to identify opportunities for future actions to improve both teaching and learning processes. In particular, we provide a clear overview of university pre-service teachers' use of social media for personal, academic, and pre-service professional purposes. Social media have become an indispensable part of pre-service teachers' daily lives.

Concerning the first target of this study, the results show that social media platforms have positively affected mathematics education in the specific context under consideration. University pre-service teachers need to use these new technologies to teach mathematics effectively. In addition, social media technologies provide several other benefits, which generally include sharing information, corroboration, exploration, and cost saving.

Concerning the second target of this study, the results reflect pre-service teachers’ positive attitudes toward integrating social media platforms in their mathematics classrooms for both learning and teaching. In particular, students use essentially the same social media platforms in and outside the classroom, such as YouTube, WhatsApp, and Facebook. Activities based in these technological environments appear to highly motivate them. This study has shown that gender and year of study are immaterial to the use of social media in the context considered. However, positive correlations existed between pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward the use of social media, year of study, and gender. The results showed an acceptable fit between the model and the data. Therefore, the study aimed to propose a regression model to predict pre-service teachers’ social media use in the teaching of mathematics.

Finally, regarding the third objective of this study, the results suggest that the official use of social media in mathematics instruction can reduce student-teacher dependency, enhance students' thinking skills, and promote easier and faster communication among students and teachers. This approach can also support meaningful learning and serve as a potential tool to meet the needs of all learners. Therefore, the results from this study address each of the three research questions and meet the objectives of this study, providing important information that can reduce the knowledge gap. Moreover, the current findings align with the conclusions of other researchers and studies, which highlights their consistency.