A Constructivist Intervention Program for the Improvement of Mathematical Performance Based on Empiric Developmental Results (PEIM)
Identificadores
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12020/1029ISSN: 1664-1078
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.582805
Fecha
2021-01-13Tipo de documento
articleÁrea/s de conocimiento
Ciencias de la EducaciónMateria/s Unesco
5312.04 EducaciónResumen
Teaching mathematics and improving mathematics competence are pending
subjects within our educational system. The PEIM (Programa Evolutivo Instruccional
para Matemáticas), a constructivist intervention program for the improvement of
mathematical performance, affects the different agents involved in math learning,
guaranteeing a significant improvement in students’ performance. The program is based
on the following pillars: (a) students become the main agents of their learning by
constructing their own knowledge; (b) the teacher must be the guide to facilitate and
guarantee such a construction by being a great connoisseur of the fundamental aspects
of the development of the child’s mathematical thinking; (c) the mathematical contents
must be sequenced in terms of the complexity and significance for the student as
well as contextualized at all times; and (d) the classroom must have a constructivist
climate highlighting cooperative work among students. The implementation of PEIM
along with the empirical evaluation conducted in several centers in Madrid and Zaragoza
(Spain) confirm how students improve their mathematical competence. Both first- and
second-grade students in elementary education were far more effective in solving
problems, highlighting the use of more advanced strategies in their resolution and
a lower incidence of conceptual errors. Moreover, it was possible to verify how the
students proving greater difficulty, experienced an evolution in learning similarly to those
who did not present it. The program provides customized education to allow the teacher
to know at all times how he should be more influential on the students’ learning
through mathematical profiles. Both teaching practice and teachers were observed,
being that of the experimental group more prone to analyzing processes and allowing
the construction of knowledge by students, due to their psycho-developmental training.
As a result, we found several improvements through the implementation of the program
that may serve, for upcoming years, as a basis for the necessary changes in the teaching
of mathematics.