Sociocultural context as a facilitator of student learning of function concepts in mathematics

In Costa Rica, many secondary students have serious difficulties to establish relationships between mathematics and real-life contexts. They question the utilitarian role of the school mathematics. This fact motivated the research object of this report which evidences the need to overcome methodologies unrelated to students’ reality, toward new didactical options that help students to value mathematics, reasoning and its  applications, connecting it with their socio-cultural context. The research used a case study as a qualitative methodology and the social constructivism as an educational paradigm in which the knowledge is built by the student; as a product of his social interactions. A collection of learning situations was designed, validated, and implemented. It allowed establishing relationships between mathematical concepts and the socio-cultural context of participants. It analyzed the impact of students’socio-cultural context in their mathematics learning of basic concepts of real variable functions, consistent with the Ministry of Education (MEP) Official Program.  Among the results, it was found that using students’sociocultural context improved their motivational processes, mathematics sense making, and promoted cooperative social interactions. It was evidenced that contextualized learning situations favored concepts comprehension that allow students to see mathematics as a discipline closely related with their every-day life.

Creencias y prácticas de autoevaluación del aprendizaje vigentes en los procesos de formación profesional desarrollados en el CIDE durante el 2007

This article identifies beliefs and practices of self-learning existing processes developed in the CIDE during 2007. It is based on a research project with two groups of informants both academics from CIDE, that during the decade of the 90 participated in the experience of self-learning, some of themas teachers and other as students. Current practices being carried out by academics in the field of self-reporting of apprenticeships in the CIDE, show that they attach great importance to this process in the lesson and agree on the necessity to implement this process in concrete terms, that because, experiences become isolated initiatives that do not fall within any policy, guideline or orientation openly raised by the community CIDE. The beliefs of the participants with regard to the possibility of implementing self-evaluation processes of learning in the training that develops the CIDE, highlight the need for scholars to train group of academics and students in this field and also create more spaces for student involvement. Moreover, scholars believe that the self-assessment of learning is a strategy for developing metacognitive processes and reflective, which is considered a core importance in the training provided by the Centre.