68016 - Didactics of Mathematics with Elements of Statistics

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student: - knows the main research contributions in Mathematics Education related to some of his fundamental themes (problem solving, difficulty in mathematics, mathematics and language, ...) and some research contributions in psychology, cultural anthropology, neuroscience, ... that most directly investigate the problems of mathematics teaching / learning; - knows how to make use of the acquired knowledge to formulate proposals for didactic intervention or to elaborate hypotheses of work and/or investigation/research in classroom situations; - will be able to make use of the appropriate observation tools for teaching activities, proposing interpretative hypotheses of any difficulties encountered and formulating compensatory intervention plans aimed at overcoming the critical areas in mathematics teaching/learning; - knows how to propose reflections pertinent to the activities observed/carried out, placing them in relation to his/her educational path and knows how to communicate them using a specific professional language proper to the teaching of mathematics and of the directly bordering disciplines; - moves with good command and critical attention towards the tools available to the teaching profession: bibliographic, technical, IT; - knows the basic concepts of descriptive statistics and understands the meaning and value of its tools and methods; - will know how to apply methods and tools of statistics, finalizing them to study phenomena through appropriate activities of organization, synthesis, presentation, interpretation and critical analysis of data; - is able to use these methods and tools to favor, from an educational point of view and in relation to nursery and primary school pupils, a first cognitive and critical approach to statistics by implementing simple research projects which, starting from data collection, lead to their organization, representation, processing, interpretation.

Course contents

First part:


 Mathematics today: elements of maths communication

 Theories of learning / teaching in mathematics

 Main theoretical constructs for the analysis of learning processes

 The role of affective factors in the mathematics teaching/learning process

 Errors and difficulties in mathematics

 Elements of statistics


Second part: analysis of specific activities


The second part of the course will be based on the analysis and discussion of specific activities, in the light of the theoretical constructs introduced in the first part. The proposed activities will be based partly on materials provided directly by the teacher and partly on the materials of the project M@t.abel [mailto: M@t.abel], available online at the address
http://www.scuolavalore.indire.it/superguida/matabel/

Readings/Bibliography

In addition to slides and materials made available by the teacher, the following reference texts are recommended:

Baccaglini Frank, Di Martino, Natalini, Rosolini, Didattica della matematica, Mondadori Università 2018

Bolondi, Fandino Pinilla, Metodi e strumenti per l’insegnamento e l’apprendimento della matematica, EdiSES 2012

Castelnuovo, Pentole, ombre, formiche, Utet 2017

Castelnuovo, Didattica della matematica, Utet 2017

Cazzola, Matematica per scienze della formazione primaria, Carocci 2017

D’Amore, Elementi di didattica della matematica, Pitagora ed.

Dedò, Di Sieno, Laboratorio di matematica: una sintesi di contenuti e metodologie

Israel, Millan Gasca, Pensare in matematica, Zanichelli 2015

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons

Laboratory sessions

Assessment methods

Written test

Teaching tools

Online documentation

Office hours

See the website of Silvia Benvenuti