Educational experience on modelling for Panamanian mathematics teachers

• Published in: Alteridad (Cuenca, Ecuador) Vol. 19; no. 1; pp. 57 - 68
• Main Authors: Ledezma, Carlos, Morales-Maure, Luisa, Font, Vicenç
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cuenca Universidad Politécnica Salesiana del Ecuador 01-01-2024
• Subjects: Education; Educational Experience; Learning Experience; Mathematical Models; Mathematics; Mathematics Education; Mathematics Instruction; Mathematics teachers; Secondary education; Teaching
• ISSN: 1390-325X; 1390-8642
• DOI: 10.17163/alt.v19n1.2024.05

Internationally, mathematical modelling has been gaining an important space in educational curricula, this is why the teaching of this process has been included in educational programmes for mathematics teachers. Due to this importance, in this study, an educational experience on modelling for practising secondary education mathematics teachers from the Panamanian school system is reported, whose objective is to analyse the solving procedures of these teachers to modelling problems and classify these solving procedures. The context is the Diploma Course in Mathematics Education Applied to Secondary Education, taught by the University of Panama, which included a submodule on modelling. The "modelling cycle from a cognitive perspective", which was taught in the submodule, was used to analyse the solving procedures for three problems posed to the participating teachers, through the written productions that they uploaded to the virtual platform of the diploma course. Four solving procedures could be identified in the 40 productions analysed, which varied from not totally understanding the wording of the problems to developing a whole modelling cycle. With these results, it is intended to provide a first overview of the teaching and learning of modelling in the Panamanian context and to lay the foundations for possible curricular adaptations to mathematics teaching.