Teaching Math through YouTube: The case of Spanish edutubers

Abstract

YouTube is the reference platform for searching audiovisual educational materials from both a formal and informal perspective. The objective of our research is to analyze the presence of educational math channels on YouTube and extract the success factors of these channels to establish a discussion that helps to improve teacher training. For this, a study of the 29 most successful mathematics channels in Spain is carried out through the application of a qualitative instrument for the analysis of educational YouTube channels. The results show a high proportional presence of math channels, a positive growth trend and the success factors of the analyzed categories: dependent variables (gender and educational stage), data and statistics of the channel, structuring of the videos, process of recording and editing the videos, personality of the edutuber, use of the YouTube platform and use of other social networks. The findings are discussed with the most recent literature on the subject. We conclude a series of proposals for the improvement of the didactics of mathematics.