Micro classes as a primary school–level mathematics education response to COVID-19 pandemic in China: students’ degree of approval and perception of digital equity

Abstract

The article introduces a mathematics education measure in response to the COVID-19 epidemic in China and explores students’ degree of approval and perception of digital equity towards the response. After the outbreak of the COVID-19, the Chinese New Century Primary School Mathematics Textbook (NCPM) committee had developed a series of micro classes (abbreviated as NCPM micro classes), and more than 25 million teachers and students in China watched the NCPM micro classes during the 3 months social isolation. Then, students’ degree of approval towards the NCPM micro classes and perception of digital equity were examined after social isolation. A total of 132,740 pieces of data were collected from Chinese primary school students. Quantitative analysis of student’s degree of approval towards different parts of NCPM micro classes indicated that the introduction, interaction, summary and consolidation, curriculum characteristics, and goal achievement parts of the NCPM micro classes have received high approval from students, and students with higher former achievement perceived a higher degree of approval towards the NCPM micro classes. Furthermore, we found that gender, socioeconomic status, school location, and learning location had no significant impact on students’ degree of approval, indicating a digital equity exists. This study helps researchers or educators understand the mathematics education response to the COVID-19 outbreak in China and extends our understanding of primary students’ degree of approval and perception of digital equity with these online classes.