2024

Mathematics for All

Name: Mathematics for All
Code: PED14070M
3 ECTS
Duration: 15 weeks/78 hours
Scientific Area: Education Sciences, Educação Especial

Teaching languages: Portuguese
Languages of tutoring support: Portuguese

Presentation

Can mathematics be a science accessible to all children and people? This curricular unit (CU) deconstructs the social prejudice behind this issue, discussing what it means to be mathematically competent today and assuming that Mathematics is a right of everyone.

Sustainable Development Goals

Learning Goals

To know current perspectives of curriculum trends related to mathematics learning, namely about the competencies to be developed by all students;
2. To be able to problematize current challenges related to the learning and teaching of mathematics;
3. To be able to identify factors of difficulty in learning mathematics;
4. To know strategies and resources to promote the learning of Mathematics by all students;
5. To know the potential of formative assessment in Mathematics for the success of learning in Mathematics;
6. To be able to plan teaching practices that promote success in learning mathematics.

Contents

1. Current perspectives of curriculum trends related to mathematics learning
• The importance of meaning in mathematics
• The notion of mathematical competency
2. Challenges related to learning and teaching mathematics
• Prejudices and expectations
• Mathematics for all
3. Factors of difficulty in learning mathematics
• Cultural factors
• Mathematical factors
• Personal factors
4. Strategies and resources for promoting mathematics learning
• Characteristics of mathematical tasks
• Mathematical communication driven by good questions
• Multiple representations and their connections
• Technologies as tools for reasoning and representing
5. Potentialities of formative assessment in Mathematics
• Evaluation that promotes learning
• Productive feedback in mathematics
6. Teaching practices that promote success in learning mathematics
• The role of the student and the teacher
• Exploratory teaching of mathematics

Teaching Methods

Lessons take place by means of diverse activities, proposed by the teacher, which intend to involve students in the collective (de) construction of knowledge. The systematization of ideas about the learning contents results from the discussion of the students' perspectives, taking advantage of their professional experiences and knowledge, in comparison with theoretical references from the research in the field. One example of an activity is the analysis of video episodes from mathematics’ lessons that mobilize the students’ discussion of the consequences of the characteristics of the practices for the mathematical learning of the children.
Continuous assessment is privileged, considering participation in classes (30%) and an individual work to plan a mathematics teaching situation that promotes student success (70%).
The final assessment involves a written test (50%) and a practical test (50%)