Abstract:

In last decade, the educational authorities in Mexico have shown a special interest in increasing the quality level of education, initiating the Reform of Higher Education process. One of the main axes of the Reform is the definition of a common curriculum framework, which might be shared by all higher education institutions, based on an educational approach aimed at developing skills. Under this framework, the mathematics knowledge field, aims to foster the development of creativity, logical and critical thinking among students, through processes of reasoning, argumentation and structuring of ideas involving the deployment of different knowledge, skills, attitudes and values, in solving mathematical problems in their applications that go beyond the school environment.

In this context, the research problem is to determine which and how many competences might be develop by students of the Mathematics 1 (Algebra) course, using the tool “Practymathe” and to find if it raised their mathematical academic achievement.
The procedure has two lines occurring simultaneously. 1) Instructional design: a) review of the new Algebra program and analysis of the competences that are being developed by students. b) Development of instructional materials (exercises, tutorials, quizzes), for each topic of the course. c) Definition of the evaluation system. 2) Technological design is related with the modules of “Practymathe” tool, divided into two areas: first for students, where they can practice their knowledge about each topic. Second for the teachers, so they can know how to follow students’ process and how to administrate easily their grades. A blog was also designed which contains all the topics and that is linked with “Practymathe”.

At the end of the research, it will be determined the students’ improvement in academic achievement and specify which disciplinary and transversal competences have been acquired through the course. This study will also give information about “Practymathe’s” use by teachers. Finally, the benefits of this research are: 1) To have available the technological tool “Practymathe” that will help to support the instruction of Algebra at the high school level if it shows the improvement of the student’s academic process, it could be utilized in other subjects and at different educational levels. 2) At the point of identifying the competences needed by the students, a training and actualization program could be suggested to improve the teaching methods. 3) To recognize how many and which are the disciplinary competences that the students develop when they participate in a class that is supported by “Practymathe”. It is also important to proposed learning activities that reinforce the development of deficient competences. 4) To be able to compare the students’ academic learning process using “Practymathe” as a support in their classes, versus those students that does not utilize it, in order to suggest the complementary actions to improve the students’ academic grades.

Keywords:

Competences, Practymathe.