Dra. Seckel-Santis, Maria

Learning about the conceptions used by primary school teachers towards the use of robotics in class is essential as the first step towards its application in the classroom. Therefore, with the purpose of describing the understanding applied when teaching and learning mathematics use educational robots, research was conducted by means of mixed methods using a descriptive design by survey. Such research consisted of closed questions (Likert-type scale from 1 to 5) and open questions, given to 83 primary school teachers who currently teach students in the first years of school (First to Fourth grade) in two Chilean districts. The results showed that in general, there is a positive predisposition towards the addition of robots in the learning and teaching of mathematic processes during the first years of school, even though teachers claim there is a struggle to incorporate robots in their lessons due to the high number of students and the reduced space in their classrooms.

Currently, teachers are being challenged to integrate sustainability into school classrooms in various disciplines, and the statistics education is not immune to this trend. Against this backdrop, in this work we investigate the belief system of 11 Chilean primary education teachers who are active in statistics education and its links with sustainability. To this end, we conducted semi-structured interviews and analyzed them using a qualitative methodology under an interpretive approach. The results show that teachers acknowledge the integration of statistics education and sustainability as a challenge, identifying as the most recurring topics their mastery of content and the development of skills.

Computational thinking in the educational environment has awaken a rising interest, having been included as part of the curricula from the very beginnings of education. Programmable robots have become a valuable positive resource in order to succeed in the development of computational thinking, demanding proper training from kindergarten teachers and trainees in order to be able to teach robotic programming. This article has the purpose to 1) identify the frequent errors made by trainee kindergarten teachers when solving a series of robotic problems in a computational thinking module, which develops in the course of Didactics of Mathematics and 2) determine the level of comprehension of the robot concept acquired by the trainees when solving robotics problems. The research developed in a qualitative methodology manner; the data used for this article were collected through the solving of fve robotic problems and an open-ended question that had to be answered by each of the 25 participants individually. The results showed that, in general, the most frequent error appeared in problems in which movements were set in a Euclidean space of two dimensions. That is to say, the problems’ solving required a selection of diferent commands: turn, moving forward and/or backwards. Moreover, more than half of the participants who answered the open-ended question succeeded in owning the robot concept once they had solved the problems.

Education is a fundamental tool to make a country's society equitable, just, and respectful of the environment. As primary education is compulsory for a country's population, it allows building knowledge and skills to promote sustainable development, in this sense, it is necessary to examine whether the primary education curricular bases offer learning opportunities and contexts for students at this stage to develop their awareness, knowledge and skills in a sustainable way. The qualitative methodology was used, specifically, the content analysis to analyze the 24 Chilean primary programs of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences under the cognitive domain of Education for sustainable development (ESD) and in terms of their learning objectives with the sustainability development goals (SDGs). The results show that an interdisciplinary stochastic education in the context of the curricular learning of Social Sciences and Natural Sciences provides learning opportunities to develop ESD at the different levels that make up primary education. It is observed that the Natural Sciences and Social Sciences curricula at all levels of primary education lead to ESD are being developed in an interdisciplinary manner (with these two subjects and stochastic themes).

If we are to understand and address today’s social, environmental and economic crises through education, we must introduce education for sustainable development (ESD) into classrooms and approach it from an integrated perspective. In so doing, this study aims to provide an overview of the current status of the still-emerging research agenda on the integration of ESD into mathematical education and statistical education. To this end, we conducted a systematic review of Scopus and Web of Science databases of theoretical and research articles published between 2010 and May 2023. In total, 32 studies were identified, conducted mostly in Europe, followed by South America, which mainly address teacher training. The results suggest that mathematics education and statistics education are an effective means of providing education focused on ESD, but that teachers still have limited knowledge and resistant attitudes. Therefore, initial and ongoing training must move towards characterizing proposals that provide examples and involve teachers in response to this challenge.