Abstract:

In recent years, a trend has been developing in education that advocates improving student academic performance through the use of innovative methodological processes to replace the so-called traditional methods. In this line, the use of methodologies based on new technologies is responding to the demands of education and one of the newest trends in this field is Augmented Reality, also known as AR.

In relation to this methodological tool, it should be noted that in the last decade a boom has developed, mainly because it is a technology that allows the superimposition of images created through a digital platform with real images. Also, its use is increasingly widespread because the support it uses are mobile devices or tablets which are tools used daily and also, thanks to the intuitive design of applications that are used to create virtual content.

Focusing specifically on Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO), there are many innovative technologies that are used in this educational stage but, without doubt, the AR is a very favourable instrument for adolescents because it promotes motivation and learning ability. Students belonging to this cycle are generally over-stimulated due to the speed of response of the technology they use in their leisure time. This difficulty is increased because the time of use of this type of devices and applications is growing in this group. For this reason, students need tools that provide them with an incentive to improve their attention, concentration and involvement and, in this way, to enhance their academic results, thus covering their educational needs.

In particular, in the field of mathematics, the use of manipulative materials is not new. However, the technological revolution is making available numerous virtual materials which, in combination with physical ones, provide an infinite number of possibilities for presenting challenges in the classroom that stimulate knowledge by exploring their immediate environment, thus contributing to the creation of permanent learning in this area. For this reason, AR allows for an increase in educational quality since it improves students' skills and fosters the ability to learn how to learn.

In this sense, the main objective of this study is to carry out a review of the state of scientific production of the use of Augmented Reality in Compulsory Secondary Education classrooms. For this purpose, the Web of Science (WOS) databases have been used to obtain a sample of articles and analyse them according to different bibliometric indicators, such as the number of publications per year, the number of citations per year and the immediacy index, among others. After examining the results obtained, a significant increase in scientific production can be observed, according to the Price Law, with the period of greatest production and scientific citation being between 2013 and 2019. This fact shows the benefits of the use of AR in the area of mathematics in ESO students and, therefore, the need to investigate this field.

Keywords:

Augmented Reality (AR), mathematics, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), educational innovation and new methodologies.