Rethinking the teaching of mathematics in high schools

For a week, teachers of mathematics of Conalep Veracruz I and II, Mexico, returned to the classrooms in the role of students. They shared experiences and built new knowledge around the teaching of mathematics in the workshop taught by instructors Daniela Reyes and Karla Gómez of the Roberto Rocca Technical Gene Program.

Silvia Guadalupe Medina, a teacher at Conalep Veracruz II, Mexico, for 24 years, arrived with high expectations and at the end of the workshop shared her joy for what she had learned. "I have taught chemistry, mathematics and physics for several years now. Definitely, the workshop opened another panorama for me, so I do want and am willing to give the subject with the intentionality with which it was taught to us". She mentioned that the purpose is that students know how to build mathematics in a different way, not in the traditional way. "Today we must work as a team, sharing knowledge and I know that our young people have the ability to contribute their knowledge to build learning in mathematics together." 

Víctor Gutiérrez Barradas, a teacher at Campus Veracruz I, described the workshop as excellent. "It exceeded my expectations, now I have new ways of teaching for my classroom, it helped me to resignify mathematical thinking. In my case I have always liked to go beyond the book, ground knowledge in reality, generate more skills and find new contexts, so this learning came in handy ", he said.

The objective of the workshop was to sensitize teachers and implement mathematical tasks different from the traditional ones, which promote the development of mathematical thinking in high school students, explained Karla Gómez, Academic Coordinator of the workshop.

"The mathematics classroom is always cataloged as a very apathetic environment for the students, we wanted to understand realities and we brought proposals. The openness of the teachers and their willingness made us become the people who provide the tools, not only the instructors. Our common goal is for students to develop thinking, not just learn mathematics. We must try to train future professionals who work as a team, not individually, and for that we must listen to each other and reach a consensus."

"I take with me great lessons about what is the intentionality of the ways of learning mathematics. We must learn to better implement mathematics so that students do not feel the classic fear of the subject, many of them enter feeling failure even without having started the course. The intentionality of the exercises, the argumentation and the didactic intention changes a lot with what we were taught here," said Leonel Cruz Lara, who teaches the subjects of spaces and quantities, linear geometry and algebra at the Veracruz II campus. 

Gladis Rojas Vega, teacher of Conalep Veracruz shared: "It is to break with a paradigm, it is to know another teaching method, more modern, more in line with the reality of our young students, without recriminating them and rather making them think; taking up their ideas to build knowledge is a method of teaching between groups."

The workshop also combined the international experience of teachers from Colombia, who implement in their schools the mathematics path of Technical Gene Roberto Rocca.

Oscar Paternina, Coordinator of the program in Cartagena, explained: "Knowing the similarities, problems and experiences of the teachers helped us build knowledge, we saw a group that wanted to have other types of tools to strengthen their accompaniment to students in mathematics, which is very similar in Colombia and gives me the certainty that I can accompany them in the task".

Finally, Daniela Reyes, Academic Director of the workshop, explained that it was possible to generate spaces for dialogue on the functionality of mathematics and to know what is done internationally. "When we arrive at a scenario where there are many years of experience and work, with more entrenched alternatives to the operational, there will always be resistance. However, the willingness of teachers was very good, open to know the things that are worked on at the international level, which is related to international evaluations that put the practical in mind, makes a lot of sense to them. They leave convinced that what they learned here and they already want to incorporate it into their planning."