With various functions, Twitter has rapidly grown in popularity since it was founded (Hitchcock, & Young, 2016). Twitter, a popular technology connecting people, could be used in education except for interpersonal communication. Micro-blogging via the Twitter platform potentially encourages engagement, reflection, and cooperation (Gao, Luo, & Zhang, 2012). Users could communicate with each other through tweets or a series of instant messages. Similar to other social media such as Facebook and Whatsapp, users of Twitter can post messages, read texts, or watch videos via e-devices. Teachers and students could learn knowledge through the platform of twitter (Chapman, & Marich, 2020). Use of Twitter could improve academic results in General Surgery Residency Programs (Hill, Dore, Em, McLoughlin, et al., 2021). Twitter with learning contents directly in the tweets could improve learning outcomes of radiology (Kauffman, Weisberg, Zember, & Fishman, 2021).
Positive reports have been made regarding the use of Twitter in education. Twitter has been widely used in various disciplines for the educational purpose such as social work (Hitchcock & Battista, 2013; Young, 2014). The use of Twitter can facilitate engagement and collaboration, improve critical thinking abilities, and cultivate an atmosphere of academic communication (Greenhow & Gleason, 2012). Teachers can encourage students to participate in discussion and extracurricular activities via Twitter (Chamberlin & Lehmann, 2011; Gao, Luo, & Zhang, 2012).
Recent years have witnessed a great deal of research into Twitter-assisted academic achievements in education. With the rapid development of social media, the educational system has undergone a radical shift toward globalization assisted with social media (Arceneaux, & Dinu, 2018). Facebook has been demonstrated able to globalize and facilitate education although other social media have not been included (Davis et al., 2014). The use of Twitter platform could improve learners’ performance in the classroom, leading to better academic achievements in numerous ways (Feezell, 2019). Teachers and students could raise and answer questions by using Twitter conveniently and anonymously, which promotes the effect of learning and improve academic achievements (Young, 2009). Outside the classroom, students could discuss and solve difficult problems through the Twitter platform, share different opinions, increase their interactions, and improve academic achievements (Manzo, 2009). Through tweets out of class, they could conceptualize and memorize psychological issues better than they had done in class (Blessing, Blessing, & Fleck, 2012).
Although there have been a great number of studies committed to the effect of social media on education, very few of them have conducted a meta-analytical review on the effect of Twitter on education. Therefore, the first research objective in this study is to address the effect of Twitter on education in general.