Mathematics Game e-Library for Elementary School, study case: Mexico

One of the most relevant subjects for the intellectual formation of elementary school students is Mathematics where its importance goes back to ancient civilizations and which its importance is underestimated nowadays. This phenomenon occurs in Mexico, where 63.1% of the total population of elementary school students between the third and sixth grade have insufficient/elemental level of mathematics knowledge. This has resulted in the need to use a new mechanism to complement student’s classroom learning. With the rapid growth of wireless and mobile technologies, the mobile learning has been gradually considered as a novel and effective form of learning due to it inherits all the advantages of e-learning as well as breaks the limitations of learning time and space occurring in the traditional classroom teaching. This project proposes the use of a Mathematics Game e-Library integrated by a set of games for mobile devices and a distribution/management tool. The games are developed for running on mobile devices and for cover the six competencies related with the mathematics learning approach established in Mexico. The distribution/management tool allows students to reach contents according to their needs; this is achieved through a core engine that infers, from an initial profile, the games that cover the user’s knowledge gaps.

El desarrollo de la competencia docente “mirar profesionalmente” la enseñanza-aprendizaje de las matemáticas

Este artículo se inserta en la línea de reflexión en educación matemática centrada en caracterizar y desarrollar la competencia docente “mirar profesionalmente” la enseñanza-aprendizaje de las matemáticas como una componente de la práctica profesional del profesor de matemáticas. Un ejemplo procedente de un curso de formación inicial de profesores nos permite caracterizar su significado. En este trabajo se argumenta que el desarrollo de esta competencia docente se apoya en la relación dialéctica entre el conocimiento de matemáticas para la enseñanza (MKT) y el discurso generado en la resolución de tareas profesionales. Finalmente se describen algunas características de los entornos de aprendizaje en los programas de formación de profesores dirigidos a fomentar el desarrollo de esta relación dialéctica.

Aprendiendo a interpretar el aprendizaje de las matemáticas en educación primaria. Características en un contexto B-Learning

El objetivo de esta investigación es identificar características del proceso de instrumentalización del conocimiento de didáctica de la matemática de profesores de educación primaria en un curso de especialización desarrollado en un contexto b-learning. Participaron 65 maestros en un entorno de aprendizaje b-learning integrando debates virtuales y centrados en el análisis del pensamiento matemático de alumnos de educación primaria. El análisis de las participaciones en los debates virtuales y la resolución de las tareas nos han permitido caracterizar el aprendizaje del conocimiento sobre el aprendizaje de las matemáticas como un cambio en el discurso de los estudiantes. Este cambio se puso de manifiesto por la integración paulatina del conocimiento de didáctica de la matemática en la interpretación del pensamiento matemático de los alumnos. Los resultados indican que las aportaciones a los debates en forma de refutaciones favorecieron el proceso de instrumentalización de las ideas teóricas.

Earth’s Rotation: A Challenging Problem in Mathematics and Physics

A suitable knowledge of the orientation and motion of the Earth in space is a common need in various fields. That knowledge has been ever necessary to carry out astronomical observations, but with the advent of the space age, it became essential for making observations of satellites and predicting and determining their orbits, and for observing the Earth from space as well. Given the relevant role it plays in Space Geodesy, Earth rotation is considered as one of the three pillars of Geodesy, the other two being geometry and gravity. Besides, research on Earth rotation has fostered advances in many fields, such as Mathematics, Astronomy and Geophysics, for centuries. One remarkable feature of the problem is in the extreme requirements of accuracy that must be fulfilled in the near future, about a millimetre on the tangent plane to the planet surface, roughly speaking. That challenges all of the theories that have been devised and used to-date; the paper makes a short review of some of the most relevant methods, which can be envisaged as milestones in Earth rotation research, emphasizing the Hamiltonian approach developed by the authors. Some contemporary problems are presented, as well as the main lines of future research prospected by the International Astronomical Union/International Association of Geodesy Joint Working Group on Theory of Earth Rotation, created in 2013.