Research Outputs
Observation of Mathematics Classes with the Use of Robots: Design of an Instrument for Guiding Teacher Reflection
The advance of society and technological development have led governments to transform their public policies in various areas, with a particular focus on the education system. In this context, many countries have focused their efforts on raising educational quality standards, especially in the development of digital competencies. This has generated the need to modify school curricula, incorporating Computational Thinking (CT) in areas such as mathematics. Several researches highlight the importance of providing tools to teachers to design meaningful pedagogical strategies that integrate mathematical thinking with CP, implementing innovative teaching practices that favor the development of skills in students. In line with these demands, the present research aims to design an instrument for the observation of mathematics classes that incorporate the PC through the programming of robots, in order to guide teaching reflection. The study is situated within an interpretive paradigm, with a mixed approach, and validates the content from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective. In conclusion, the instrument designed has proven to be a useful tool to guide teacher reflection, as it is structured in six key dimensions and has been validated in terms of clarity, coherence and relevance. However, the need was identified to add additional items to improve the sufficiency of some dimensions. Finally, a second validation process is suggested to ensure its reliability and applicability in different educational contexts.
Didactic-mathematical-computational knowledge of future teachers when solving and designing robotics problems
The social, scientific and technological development of recent years has encouraged the incorporation of computational thinking in the school curriculum of various countries progressively, starting from early childhood education. This research aims to characterize future kindergarten teachersā traits of didactic-mathematical and computational knowledge presented when solving and posing robotics problems. Firstly, aspects of the mathematical and computational knowledge of the participants (97 students of the subject of Didactics of Mathematics of the Degree in Early Childhood Education at a Spanish university) were identified when they solved problems as users of the Blue-Bot didactic robot. Secondly, we analyzed their justifications for reflecting on the design of robotics problems. The results indicate that future teachers present characteristics of didactic mathematical knowledge when solving and designing robotics problems, although errors and am- biguities are evident, especially in the procedures and representations of the programming. These shortcomings significantly influence the didactic suitability of the robotics problems they design. From a future perspective, in the training of future teachers, it is considered relevant to incorporate didactic-mathematical and computational knowledge that allows them to develop logical, spatial and computational thinking.
Reflections of future kindergarten teachers on the design of a mathematical instruction process didactic sequences with the use of robots
The purpose of this study is to analyze the reflections of future kindergarten teachers when designing didactic sequences with the use of the bee-bot robot. A qualitative methodological design was followed to achieve this objective, collecting the data through a written record prepared by the participants from collaborative work. A total of 25 future teachers participated, forming six working groups. The data were analyzed with the content analysis technique, considering the criteria of didactic suitabilityāepistemic, cognitive, interactional, mediational, affective, and ecologicalāand their respective components. The results suggest that at the moment prior to the design of the didactic sequences, the reflections of the groups of future teachers are related only to some criteria, while, in the design of the proposed teaching and learning process, the units of analysis were related to all six criteria. With the results obtained, it is concluded that a future implementation and observation of the design of didactic sequences by the participants would allow the participants to consider more components of the criteria when reflecting. In addition, it is concluded that training that contemplates the criteria of didactic suitability, would also allow future teachers to deepen their reflections, guiding them with these tools.
Errors of programming and ownership of the robot concept made by trainee kindergarten teachers during an induction training
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 problemsā 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.
Guidelines to develop computational thinking using the Bee-bot robot from the literature
The recognition that the development of Computational Thinking (CT) has been achieved in the educational systems of different countries implies, in some cases, the challenge of integrating its development into mathematics lessons. Although various proposals address the development of CT in the early years of schooling, educational robotics emerges as an alternative. The Bee-Bot robot has been recognized as an appropriate resource for the development of this type of thinking at an early age. For carrying out this qualitative study 25 articles were selected, based on a systematic research literature review, and analyzed to provide didactic orientation for the integration of CT in mathematics lessons with the use of the Bee-Bot robot (or similar). For this purpose, a thematic analysis method was applied to the selected research articles, focusing on the didactic explanations and suggestions for using educational robots to develop computational thinking. The themes used to analyze the data are according to the six dimensions (epistemic, cognitive, interactional, mediational, affective and ecological) of the didactic suitability proposed by the Ontosemiotic approach. The analysis allowed us to classify twelve didactic orientations according to the dimensions. Four of the twelve orientations refer to the epistemic dimension; three to the cognitive dimension; two are related to the interactional dimension; one to the mediational dimension, one to the affective dimension and another to the ecological dimension.