Abstract:

The article presents partial results of the postdoctoral research in progress in the Federal University of Santa Catarina’s - Graduate Program in Scientific and Technological Education. The research objective was to evaluate the integrative potential that Information and Communication Technology (ICT´s) can provide to public school teachers. In so doing, the project was designed to verify the use, integration and production of educational software in mathematics teaching for children and teenage students. Targeted interviews were conducted in 63 schools located in 10 cities of Santa Catarina State, Brazil.

The preliminary results indicate how educational software has integrated the acquisition of math knowledge; and how the use, comprehension and application of educational software can better engage students, yielding positive results to the teaching-learning process. The study results highlight the abstract phenomena that are most easily visualized and gain agility in graphic representations, as well as how the software stimulates logical reasoning and concrete problem-solving.

Data analysis focused on constructionism and active learning based on “learning by doing” and “learning to learn”. The results also reveal the difficulties related to the limited infrastructure of public schools and the scarcity or even absence of ICTs professionals with education focus.

Keywords:

Educational software, Education technology, math teaching, Brazilians public schools, Teaching-learning process, Active learning, Action research, South America education.