International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887) Volume 116 – No. 21, April 2015 23 The Effectiveness of an E-Book on Developing Mathematical Thinking Skills and Acquisition of Mathematical Concepts among 5th Graders in Gaza Ibrahim Hamed Al-Astal, Ph.D Associate Professor, Teaching Mathematics Department Of Curricula and Teaching Methods Islamic University of Gaza Ahmad A. Abu Zaydah M.ED. Palestinian Ministry of Education Palestine, Gaza Strip ABSTRACT This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of using an e- book on Developing Mathematical Thinking Skills and Acquisition of Mathematical Concepts Among 5th Graders in Gaza. The researchers adopted the experimental approach. The Quasi Experimental Design ( pre-post test for two groups) is adopted in the study, The sample of the study included (70) students from Bet Lahya Elementary School during the second term(2013-2014). The study sample consists of two classes have been randomly selected from the school 5th grade classes, one of them (36 students) has been chosen as experimental group and the other(34 students) as control group. Two tools were used, Mathematical thinking test and Mathematical Concepts Acquisition Test. The results revealed that there were statistically significant difference at (α = 0.05) between the scores means of the experimental group and control group in mathematical thinking skills test in favor of the experimental group. Moreover there are also significant differences at (α = 0.05) between the scores mean of the experimental group and control group in Acquisition of Mathematical Concepts in favor of experimental group. η2 and d values which were calculated, indicated to large effectiveness of the used e-book on developing mathematical thinking skills and acquisition of mathematical concepts of 5 th Graders in Gaza. General Terms E- Book , mathematical thinking skills (Guessing, Modeling, Symbolism, Induction, Deduction), acquisition of mathematical concepts. Keywords e- book, mathematical thinking skills, acquisition of mathematical concepts, the fifth grade male students 1. INTRODUCTION: Over the past decades, web-based learning has become a critical issue in education due to the large amounts of information and recourses available in online environments [1], [2]. In the light of technological development the role of the teacher changed from traditional aspect to a professional role that associated with technological development. Nowadays, mobile learning technologies have influenced many aspects of education, including the computing applications for teaching, such as tablet PCs, which provide new method for instructors to deliver content and motivate students to engage in various learning activities inside and outside the classroom [3], [4]. Among these aspects of technology ; digital devices can be used as e-book, this came at a time of rising of interactive technologies provides a chance to expand learners informal learning opportunities in a new direction, with the potential to support learners physical, social, and cognitive development [5]. Among the advantages of teaching with such e-books is the possibility offered to the student to participate actively during the lesson and make correlations and creative comparisons with either other lessons or other courses, thus supporting the interdisciplinary learning approach[6]. E-Book as Wexelbaum,et al. [7] mission is “electronic text that is available in a digitally encoded format readable via an electronic device” ( p. 2). PC magazine encyclopedia defines e-book as an electronic counterpart of a printed book, which can be viewed on a desktop computer, laptop, smartphone or e-book reader [8]. Hatipoglu and Tosun[9] add that, e-books provide new facilities in addition to having all the features of printed books but not being printed on papers, they consist of hardware and software (p129) . Also e-book can be defined as any group of text in a digital format that is to be read and displayed on a computer screen[10]. According to another definition, Borchers [11] states that, it is “portable hardware and software system that can display large quantities of readable textual information to the user and lets the user navigate through this information”(p.1) . On the other hand, e-book consists of pictures, diagrams, symbols, signs, shapes and videos which can improve thinking skills. E-books as Ongoz and Baki,[12] state are useful tools for increasing the interaction between students, and between teacher and students, they are containing multimedia makes important contributions to the quality of students’ learning (p.35). The advantages of e-books for teaching are straightforward and include several factors: Increasing interaction, Promoting learning motivation, Encouraging student participation , Usefulness -Facilitating the understand of abstract concepts[13] (p.133) . Mitropoulou [6] add that, e-books offers some advantages such as “offering to the students more opportunities for engaging and interacting with the books content, multiple representations of the content information, which are expected to result to the better imprint in the students' memory” (p.269). One of the possible benefits of e-books over printed text as Beimers[14] confirms is the e-book’s extra features, as adjustable font size, a built-in dictionary, and text-to-speech features, these features as Beimers mentioned make e-books better able to meet the diverse needs of students in the general education classroom (p 7). This emerging technology has opened the possibility for a large range of new learning experiences for students because