Session Information
24 SES 03, Math for All: Evidence-Based Learning for the 21st Century
Symposium
Contribution
Europe has made a strong commitment to use research evidence to inform policymakers and other stakeholders in their decisions. The European Commission is very positive on this idea: the most recent calls for funding research highlight the idea of looking for evidence-based research to inform actions addressed to fulfil the agenda designed for 2020 (European Commission, Horizon 2020 Programme). Europe seeks for valid evidence to create innovative learning environments based on “what works.” As the ECER conference theme claim, “educational research can play a leading role” in this framework.
We understand education as a social phenomenon: drawing on social interactions (Díez-Palomar & Cabré, 2015) individuals builds collectively the knowledge, and then everyone internalizes it, individually (Vygotsky, 1978). According to the Russian psychologist, learning emerges from a process that he called “Zone of Proximal Development” (ZPD), in which children only develop higher mental functions under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers (Vygotsky, 1978).
Drawing in this sociocultural approach, some authors propose different learning environments to promote the kind of social interactions that better results produce in terms of learning. Some examples are Communities of Mutual Learners in the Classroom, Communities of Dialogic Inquiry, and Interactive Groups, among others. Aspects such as the role of teachers, volunteers, types of tasks, design and use of teaching tools, interactions among participants in the learning process, etc., are part of those examples.
In this symposium we draw on recent studies that may contribute, with key findings, to improve how we teach mathematics and how can we encourage the improvement of students’ results in mathematics within our schools all over Europe (and beyond).
Our main aim with this symposium is to discuss with the audience three different studies focusing on: teacher training, student values, and technologies as teaching tools, in order to produce more efficient mathematical teaching practices (that is: more inclusive practices, for all students). All three topics become critical to inform the design of evidence-based learning environments to foster mathematics learning in the 21st Century.
In order to fulfil this general aim, our research questions are:
Research question 1: Can we identify the type of knowledge that a successful teacher has to teach mathematics in order to inform in-service and pre-service teachers to improve their practices?
Research question 2: Can we find critical values to re-think our mathematics curriculum to be more inclusive with students?
Research question 3: Using new technological artefacts (tablets) can facilitate students’ understanding and solving of mathematics tasks?
The first paper is a literature review on research evidence-based learning in mathematics education. This piece sets the framework for the discussion of the three consecutive papers, each other highlighting one particular dimension of our main topic in this symposium: evidence-based learning environments to foster mathematics learning in the 21st Century. The paper 2 focuses on teacher professional development approach. We discuss how the analysis of a particular case may inform exploratory learning environments to improve teachers’ practices. The paper 3 brings the voices of the students to the discussion in our symposium, from the perspective of the values embedded in the curriculum. We problematize the way in which mathematics curriculum introduces mathematics learning opening the opportunity to implement the curriculum from the values point of view. The paper 4 focuses our attention on new tools (tablets) as mediators for the mathematics teaching and learning.
References
Díez-Palomar, J., & Cabré, J. (2015). Using dialogic talk to teach mathematics: The case of interactive groups. ZDM, 47(7), 1299-1312. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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