Abstract:

The use of educational games and origami activities can be a powerful tool to engage students and enhance their mathematical learning. The combination of these two tools makes it possible to work innovatively on different aspects of mathematics teaching: origami is a valuable aid in explaining the topic because it makes it tangible and facilitates the process of abstraction, while the games consolidate the topics covered by working on the students' mistakes by defusing the difficulties.

Nonetheless, the efficacy of these methodologies largely depends on the preparation and competence of teachers in effectively integrating such tools into their teaching methodologies.

Maths teachers may harbour doubts regarding the use of origami and/or didactic games into traditional maths lessons for various reasons. For example, they can perceive these kinds of activities as potential distractions from serious learning, or they can worry about consuming time that could be used to cover essential mathematical content. Certainly, the lack of expertise on how to effectively integrate new activities into more traditional didactics is one of the main problems that need to be addressed to ensure that didactic innovation can effectively find its way into everyday teaching.

In this paper we discuss the crucial role of professional development courses in empowering teachers with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to effectively utilise origami and educational games in mathematics instruction and we show how through suitable training programs, teachers can learn how to select appropriate activities or games for specific learning objectives and how to modify them to suit different student needs.

This discussion builds upon our experience delivering professional development courses in Italy for the past ten years. More recently, we've expanded the program to Portugal, offering two courses in 2024. These courses have targeted a wide range of educators, from primary to secondary teachers, and, in some cases, included specialised sessions for teachers working with students with special needs.

In particular, in this paper we discuss the principal features of effective teacher training courses based on the use of origami and didactic games. First of all, teachers must put themselves in the students' shoes and fold and play firsthand, since true comprehension and mastery of these kinds of activities come from active participation and direct experience. In this way, teacher training fosters a natural understanding of the pedagogical principles behind the use of the proposed activities, both origami and educational games, emphasising their role in promoting active learning, problem-solving skills and conceptual understanding.
Moreover, we provide teachers with all the materials used during the course, in order to facilitate seamless integration of origami activities and educational games into teaching practices, ultimately maximising their effectiveness and impact on student learning.

In order to collect the outcomes of these professional development courses we create a satisfaction survey and a "registry" where teachers report subsequent uses of the materials and stimuli provided during the training. The results collected through the satisfaction surveys have been very positive, with teachers expressing enthusiasm for this type of experience and showing keen interest in participating in future editions.

Keywords:

Training courses, mathematics, hands-on activities.