Breaking their own record by reaching the number of 150 students, the Professional Development Unit of the Center for Mathematical Modeling of the Universidad de Chile (CMM), lectured the 2015 Summer Courses. The activity is part of the offer of continuing studies in education offered by the CMM as a tool to improve the way the Mathematics are taught and learnt.
Among the different subjects addressed by the courses were Problems Solving, Data and Randomness, Equations, and Probabilities, which were in charge of researchers and professionals from the center.
“The courses address activities which allow to develop other abilities, for example, mathematical reasoning, mathematics communication, representations and modeling even. It is a core area of the curriculum,” explains Professor Patricio Felmer, who lectured Problems Resolution from 5º to 8º of Elementary Course. “For the classroom management, teachers must allow other different things than today are doing: allowing kids take their time to solve problems, to discuss them and even to make mistakes.”
The issues were addressed based on the research that the laboratory is developing
“We are developing a research on professional development strategy using the math problem solving. How do you use the problem solving, which is a skill kids must develop and teachers must have, to the professional development of teachers.”
The students appreciated the contents are very applicable in the classroom as well as the methodologies addressed by the program.
“They offer the opportunity of looking the issue of the student’s way of thinking from another perspective. It mixes pedagogic contents with general strategies of problem solving, not only applied to curricular contents, but to any situation. Because of that, attending this course is an excellent opportunity”, explains Mauricio Soto, psychologist from Fundación Educacional Arauco at Biobío Region, who attended a course on problem solving.
Other CMM programs offered are the Postgraduate Diploma in Mathematical Education, workshops on problem solving, seminaries and different kind of courses.
