Category Archives: Artículos

Interactions for teaching mathematics in early ages.

Mathematics education is deeper than the mere transmission of content and includes, for example, the development of skills and competencies. This development has been aided by the cultivation of positive interactions in the classroom. At early ages, we review four factors that affect these interactions: resource availability, beliefs about learning and mathematics, mathematics anxiety, and gender gaps and stereotypes.

Characterising the Didactic-Stochastic Knowledge of Future Mathematics Teachers: The Case of Chile

Background: Stochastics’ teacher education has become an important research topic since mathematics teachers are usually responsible for the teaching of stochastics (statistics and probability) in schools. However, the emergence of new theoretical approaches has resulted in the identification of a problem: organizing and describing the necessary professional knowledge to teach stochastics. Objectives: The aim of this research is to characterize the didactic-stochastic knowledge needed for pre-service mathematics teachers, considering Chile as a case study.

International comparisons of the home mathematics environment and relations with children’s mathematical achievement

Home mathematics environment (HME) re-search has focused on parent–child interactions surround-ing numerical activities as measured by the frequency of engaging in such activities. However, HME survey ques-tions have been developed from limited perspectives (e.g., Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 27, 2012, 231; Journal of Social Issues, 64, 2008, 95; Early childhood mathematics education research: Learning trajectories for young children, Routledge, New York, 2009), by researchers from a small subset of countries (15; Psychological Bulletin, 147, 2020, 565), which may skew our interpretations.

Development of children’s number line estimation in primary school: Regional and curricular influences

Is the development of number line estimation (NLE) similar across regions? Data from Canada
(Quebec, n = 67, Mage = 7.9 years; Manitoba, n = 177, Mage = 7.8 years), Chile (n = 81, Mage =
7.9 years), and Northern Ireland (n = 171, Mage = 7.3 years) were analyzed. Twice, approximately
one year apart, students completed a 0–1000 NLE task and other mathematical tasks.
Using latent profile analysis, students’ estimates were classified as belonging to either a uniform or
variable profile. At Time 1, estimation accuracy differed across regions, but at Time 2, patterns of
performance were similar. Regional variations in improvements were related to curricular demands.
Moreover, mini meta-analyses of the associations between NLE and other mathematical
tasks revealed medium effect sizes. Overall, the NLE task can provide insights into concurrent and
longitudinal mathematics achievement, but educational experiences should be considered when
comparing performance across regions.

Teachers’ strategies and challenges in teaching 21st century skills: Little common understanding

Faced with a world of accelerating change and rapidly-evolving technology, education systems must provide students with the skills they need to succeed in the 21st century. However, many countries have failed to incorporate the teaching of these skills within their schools. Our study therefore looks to portray teachers’ understanding, strategies and obstacles in teaching these skills across Latin American classrooms. To do so, we analyzed the responses to an online survey from 1391 active teachers across 20 countries in the region. This revealed varying understandings of 21st century skills, with little common understanding. Most teachers failed to mention the skills included in the most popular framework (the 4 Cs); those who did reported using the same strategies, regardless of the skill being taught. These strategies included project-based learning, oracy activities, literacy strategies, and teamwork. We conclude that there is little or no common understanding around these skills, nor the best strategies for developing them. Our study helps understand the potential causes preventing the teaching of these skills in the classroom, a problem that extends beyond Latin America.

Mathematical problem-solving-related affect across gender and grade-level among upper primary students

Affect has been identified as one of the important inputs in illuminating the mechanism of cognitive activities in mathematical problem solving (MPS). This study aimed to assess upper primary students’ MPS-related affect with a focus on its differences across gender and grade-level among upper primary students. To do so, a simple Likert type scale was developed to measure students’ MPS-related affect. Moreover, the study examined how this affective structure varies across grade levels and gender among upper primary students. The scale includes 5 subscales; Vision, Value, Enjoyment, Effort, and Self-efficacy regarding MPS. The responses of 725 upper primary students from different schools were considered to carry out the psychometric analysis and to demonstrate the scale’s potential usefulness for measuring the MPS-related affective construct. The results revealed that girls and boys did not show any significant difference in the subscales, except for Vision of MPS, where girls report a higher dynamic (a non-static) vision than boys. When comparing grades, there were significant differences among these across variables. However, almost all variables (except Vision) show a decreasing trend, while Enjoyment and Effort have a wide range of changes along with grades. Ultimately, these differences need to be considered by mathematics teachers and curricula.