Evaluation of the Use of Smartboard in Saudi Arabia Education in Primary Schools

Abstract

The objective of this review was to synthesise the current literature surrounding the use of smartboards in the context of the educational setting in Saudi Arabia, focusing on primary schools, in order to inform educators and policymakers. This review found that smartboards are conceptualised as effective in terms of helping primary school students in Saudi Arabia to recall the information they have learned in class in a range of subject fields including Mathematics, Literacy and Vocabulary. The evidence showed that the use of smartboards in classrooms allows both students and teachers to access educational databases and e-libraries to support their learning. This review also demonstrated that students are able to work collaboratively with their peers and communicate with their teachers in a manner that conforms with constructivist approaches to learning via the use of smartboards. It showed that smartboards also play a salient role in enriching students' knowledge of complex subjects such as science, further motivating their learning by promoting the learning of new concepts, encouraging problem-solving, and promoting critical thinking. It was found that the use of smartboards in the classroom enhances students' latent strengths and as a result, boosts their confidence and has positive impacts on learning by mitigating any anxiety that they might feel in the face of studying complex subjects such as Mathematics. The conclusions of the reviewed studies were skewed towards teachers having positive perceptions about the use of smartboards in the classroom, yet negative attitudes concerning smartboard use were also recorded. These negative attitudes were linked to a lack of training and technical challenges related to the operation of smartboards during lessons. Therefore smartboards are not being effectively leveraged in some Saudi primary schools and that a lack of training has influenced some teachers to develop negative attitudes about this technological tool.