Matías Camacho-Machín

Education for sustainable development (ESD) involves addressing complex problems that require the development of mathematical abilities and general competencies. In the context of secondary mathematics teachers training, this challenge should be supported by a holistic process that considers theoretical frameworks on sustainability from a mathematics education perspective. In this work, we analyze and adapt general ESD through a particular approach from mathematics education. Key characteristics relevant to the development of mathematics teaching activities are identified and proposed. Then we present experimental results in a teacher training course, identifying the sustainability competencies that emerge and their relationship with mathematical abilities. The findings highlight the importance of generating more activities that reinforce the anticipatory competency in pre-service teachers for future sustainability scenarios.

Esta investigación analiza cómo el uso de GeoGebra fortalece la capacidad de futuros profesores para reformular problemas. Se utilizó una metodología cualitativa basada en el uso de cuatro fases para el proceso de formulación (orientación, conexión, generación y reflexión), y las categorías establecidas por Baumanns: reformular para resolver el problema y para indagar o investigar; formular para generar nuevos problemas o para diseñarlos con fines didácticos. Los resultados muestran que GeoGebra desempeñó un papel clave, principalmente en la fase de conexión, y permitió evaluar ideas previas y comprobar la viabilidad de los problemas planteados por los participantes. Además, la visualización y las aproximaciones dinámicas influyeron tanto en la reformulación como en la formulación de nuevos problemas.

The aim of this paper is to review recently calculus curriculum reforms and research studies that document what types of understanding students develop in their precalculus courses. We argue that it is important to characterize what difficulties students experience to solve tasks that include the use of foundational calculus concepts and to look for possible ways for students to develop a way of reasoning to work on problems that involve variational phenomena. Thus, we identified tasks in which calculus students exhibit limited understanding of essential concepts to approach and solve those tasks. The purpose is to illustrate and discuss how the systematic use of a Dynamic Geometry System (DGS) could provide a set of affordances for students to develop ways of thinking to grasp calculus foundational ideas and to study the derivative concept. Here, we relied on Thurston’s seminal work that emphasizes the relevance for learners to identify, connect, and coordinate different dimensions and meanings (intuitive, symbolic, algorithmic, geometric, physical, and formal) to construct, understand, and apply the concept of derivative.

With an empirical study, we explore the process of designing modeling tasks for teaching mathematics in a Dynamic Geometry environment. We address the research questions: What are the characteristics of the tasks that pre-service teachers design to teach mathematics in digital and modeling environments? What are the activities like that these tasks encourage in students? By means of a qualitative methodology, we characterize the tasks designed by secondary pre-service mathematics teachers and identify the activities that these tasks encourage in students. By analyzing the process of designing and planning a class, we can determine how the characteristics of the modeling tasks are modified based on the software used. In this context, the software also acts as a medium that reflects aspects of the models involved, the objectives of the tasks, and the activities intended for the students. The results contribute to the discussion regarding task design, where technology is a means of supporting the exploration, understanding, and study of different phenomena.

This study aims to document the extent to which the use of digital technology enhances and extends high school teachers’ problem-solving strategies when framing their teaching scenarios. The participants systematically relied on online developments such as Wikipedia to contextualize problem statements or to review involved concepts. Likewise, they activated GeoGebra’s affordances to construct and explore dynamic models of tasks. The Apollonius problem is used to illustrate and discuss how the participants contextualized the task and relied on technology affordances to construct and explore problems’ dynamic models. As a result, they exhibited and extended the domain of several problem-solving strategies including the use of simpler cases, dragging orderly objects, measuring objects attributes, and finding loci of some objects that shaped their approached to reasoning and solve problems.

The initial training of mathematics teachers in Spain can start in the final year of the mathematics degree when the students, and future teachers, select courses related to teaching the discipline. At that time, since over the next two years they will probably be certified to enter the profession, it is worth asking oneself what mathematical knowledge they should have and what is needed to teach at the secondary education level. This paper describes one case study in which a group of final-year students solves a task containing aspects of mathematical understanding that are present in solving problems using GeoGebra. This was done using a solution protocol intended to emphasize the different possibilities offered by GeoGebra, presenting three approaches for the solution: dynamic, numeric and algebraic. We noticed that the use of technology is key to bringing out some of aspect and to demonstrating an understanding of mathematics for teaching.

Los libros de texto y los materiales de un curso de matemáticas siguen siendo un recurso importante para los estudiantes. En general, estos materiales ayudan a los estudiantes a revisar y extender sus conocimientos acerca de los temas que se estudian en la clase. Incluyen explicaciones de conceptos, definiciones y formas de resolver problemas, además deuna lista de problemas variados que los estudiantes tienen que resolver. Los desarrollos de la tecnología digital están transformando el diseño y uso de los libros de texto en términos de ofrecer un material interactivo donde el estudiante pueda consultar vídeos que expliquen conceptos, revisar otros recursos en línea o compartir y discutir sus acercamientos con otros a través de aplicaciones usando una tableta o un teléfono móvil. En este artículo se presenta un marco, que incluye episodios que caracterizan el proceso de resolver problemas, para el diseño de materiales interactivos donde los estudiantes tienen la oportunidad de representar y explorar problemas dinámicamente, formular conjeturas y relaciones y buscar argumentos que validen o sustenten esas relaciones.