The Students’ Perspective of Geometry Teaching and Learning in High School

The purpose of this article is to present the results obtained from a questionnaire applied to Costa Rican high school students, in order to know their perspectives about geometry teaching and learning. The results show that geometry classes in high school education have been based on a traditional system of teaching, where the teacher presents the theory; he presents examples and exercises that should be solved by students, which emphasize in the application and memorization of formulas. As a consequence, visualization processes, argumentation and justification don’t have a preponderant role. Geometry is presented to students like a group of definitions, formulas, and theorems completely far from their reality and, where the examples and exercises don’t possess any relationship with their context. As a result, it is considered not important, because it is not applicable to real life situations. Also, the students consider that, to be successful in geometry, it is necessary to know how to use the calculator, to carry out calculations, to have capacity to memorize definitions, formulas and theorems, to possess capacity to understand the geometric drawings and to carry out clever exercises to develop a practical ability.

Computer-aided tool for the teaching of relational algebra in data base courses

This article describes the design and implementation of computer-aided tool called Relational Algebra Translator (RAT) in data base courses, for the teaching of relational algebra. There was a problem when introducing the relational algebra topic in the course EIF 211 Design and Implementation of Databases, which belongs to the career of Engineering in Information Systems of the National University of Costa Rica, because students attending this course were lacking profound mathematical knowledge, which led to a learning problem, being this an important subject to understand what the data bases search and request do RAT comes along to enhance the teaching-learning process.It introduces the architectural and design principles required for its implementation, such as: the language symbol table, the gramatical rules and the basic algorithms that RAT uses to translate from relational algebra to SQL language. This tool has been used for one periods and has demonstrated to be effective in the learning-teaching process.  This urged investigators to publish it in the web site: www.slinfo.una.ac.cr in order for this tool to be used in other university courses.

Summit between West Chester University, Pennsylvania, USA and Universidad Nacional, Heredia Costa Rica. Global Library Literacy Initiative: An Intercultural Learning Experience

 This document describes the experience of academic cooperation between professionals in the field of library science, both from West Chester University (WCU), and the National University (UNA) of Costa Rica. The event took place at West Chester University during the week May 4th to May 8th, 2009. The objectives of this revolved around the exchange of ideas and interests in the academic and cultural relations between the two universities. In addition, it unveiled several services and procedures in the handling of information and highlighted the importance of promoting the exchange of students from both institutions. Finally, this article highlights the schedule of activities to integrate international and intercultural perspective in various areas related to the teaching-learning process, the contribution of university libraries on student success and techniques of information dissemination.

Strategies to Promote Research and Logical Reasoning in the Teaching of Mathematics in the Schools

The purpose of this paper is to raise a debate on the urgent need for teachers to generate innovative situations in the teaching-learning process, in the field of Mathematics, as a way for students to develop logical reasoning and research skills applicable to everyday situations. It includes some statistical data and possible reasons for the poor performance and dissatisfaction of students towards Mathematics. Since teachers are called to offer meaningful and functional learning experiences to students, in order to promote the pleasure of learning, teacher training should include experiences that can be put into practice by teachers in the education centers. This paper includes a work proposal for Mathematics Teaching to generate discussion, curiosity and logical reasoning in students, together with the Mathematical problem solving study.