Revista MENDIVE (Apr 2022)

The logical-mathematical thinking of students. A didactic matter?

  • Shirley Tarcila Conforme Holguín,
  • Francisco Samuel Mendoza Moreira

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 20, no. 2
pp. 408 – 421

Abstract

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The obtained results in Ecuador in the report of the International Student Assessment Program administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2018, the Ser Bachiller test; and, recently, the Higher Education admission exam reveals a deep weakness in learning and developing problem-solving skills. The methodological heritage of teachers is not helping to solve this issue, which is why this article aims to analyze the creative didactic strategies and the logical-mathematical thinking of adolescents from a public school in Portoviejo canton. A descriptive and correlational quantitative study was carried out to determine findings that facilitate the explanation of this problematic situation. In the fieldwork, a bank of questions was applied to students and a survey was applied to math teachers. The results show that 85.7 % of adolescents have a score lower than 7, which means that they have not exceeded the required learning levels in problem-solving. For their part, teachers use creative didactic processes very frequently but with limited time for students to reflect on possible solutions to a problem. The teacher assumes a great responsibility in the mathematics learning process because he is the mediator of building that knowledge so that students can understand it.

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