In search of a model for teaching mathematics in primary education

Kalina Jastrzębowska

Didactica Mathematicae, Tome 46 (2024), pp. 5-22.

Résumé

Research conducted by numerous academic centres in Poland has identified a clear need to rectify the situation in mathematics education in the country. Many of the issues pertain specifically to primary school mathematics teaching. Teacher-centred lesson patterns, a lack of subject-matter knowledge, absence of group work and a lack of space for creating and sharing independent solutions to problems give way to a loss of interest in the subject on the part of the students, eliminate their sense of success, and reduce the process of problem solving to the application of instrumentally mastered algorithms. In the present work, the teacher-researcher used her position as a primary school mathematics teacher (grades one through four) in a private school in the Polish capital as a full-scale training ground for action. Over the course of several years, she discovered and implemented many different approaches to mathematics education, which became the inspiration for the development of her own eclectic model for mathematics teaching. The model addresses the need to develop students’ agency in the learning process by giving them the chance to explore and discover mathematical concepts, to create models, to investigate a variety of computational strategies, to design their own tasks during group work, and to see the beauty and usefulness of mathematics in problem solving.

Détail

DOI : 10.14708/dm.v46i0.7366

Mots-clés : primary education, mathematics teaching approaches, eclectic model for primary mathematics teaching