A METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH TO DECREASE SCHOOL FAILURE IN MATHEMATICS IN COMPULSORY SECONDARY EDUCATION

Students’ rejection to Mathematics arises from the consequence of the influence on the pupil of some emotional and cognitive nature variables, which are very often intertwined. The backbone of this complex system is the difficulty of Mathematics and the experience of this difficulty. Thus, two different levels must be taken into account: The objective difficulty of Mathematics as a subject and the subjective manner in which the student approaches this difficulty. Besides, the interest for Maths remarkably decreases as students progress in their education, from the first years of Primary School to the last years of Compulsory Secondary Education. The usefulness of Mathematics for the future presents a significant decrease, which becomes more accentuated as pupils go by each academic year. The main goal of this research paper is to reveal the causes of the failure in the area of Mathematics for those students in 4th year of Compulsory Secondary Education. Based on this, we indicate the guidelines to reduce it through a methodological proposal. The didactic unit used is One-dimensional Statistics. We intend to compare the level of learning in the assessment of a group of students through two different systems and to check that the methodology presented reduces school failure. This methodology is focused on the student and is characterized by provoking the participation of students, by applying an "indirect" style that stimulates the relationship with them. With this methodology, we have favoured a good atmosphere in the classroom and have encouraged the student’s independent thinking, which has led to an improvement in learning mathematics and, therefore, to better results.