“She’s a güagüa, she won’t understand.”
“What are you talking to her for if she won’t answer you?”
“Pass him plenty of toys, don’t you see that at this age they are little sponges? They absorb everything!”
These are some of the phrases that we adults commonly use to refer to the learning of babies (or güagüas, as we call them in Chile).
Play is a space that naturally promotes learning, creativity, cognitive and brain development, motor skills, communication and socialization. So how can we leverage play to promote math skills at an early age?
It is common to hear phrases such as “boys are more talented at mathematics than girls” or “mathematics is a boy’s business” in various contexts and situations: classrooms, family gatherings, the media and in other spheres of society.
What is the reason behind the fact that students with outstanding performance in mathematics often experience feelings of incompetence or avoid tasks that involve numerical reasoning?
Learning mathematics is not usually the most attractive for our students. They usually face mathematical activities without understanding their meaning, without understanding what they are going to use them for in their lives, and sometimes even making abstract representations that they are unable to understand.
Math skills during early childhood are strongly linked to the educational success of children and adolescents.
The presence of students from different countries in the classroom brings a cultural diversity that is tremendously valuable, and provides an opportunity to enrich mathematics classes through integration strategies.
What is play? Although it is not entirely clear what is and what is not play, there are certain activities on which we can agree.
The gender gap in mathematics achievement in favor of male students in Chile is one of the largest among OECD member countries.
