Abstract:

The aim of this research is to characterize the process of “learning to teach mathematics" in a context b-learning. The participants were a group of PPT (Pre-service Primary Teachers) that participated in VLEs (Virtual Learning Environment) when solving professional tasks and using information from DM (Didactics of Mathematics). The two VLEs integrated the learning objectives, tasks as "professional problems", documents with theoretical information that could be considered useful in solving the tasks and online debates as spaces for social interaction. We have considered the relationship between (i) PPT´s modes of participation in the online debate and (ii) how they use theoretical information on teaching of additive word problem-solving. These relationships enable us to describe the process of constructing knowledge needed for teaching mathematics in online learning environment. From a situated perspective of learning we assume that the PPTs learn the necessary knowledge to teach mathematics when they are engaged in the resolution of "professional activities”. These activities characterize the practice of primary teachers and were designed, organized and integrated into a Web platform. In the online debates the PPTs construct arguments in interaction with each other that are progressively incorporated while they solve the proposed tasks. The PPT’s discourses in the online debates show different modes of participating and justifying their arguments from the "conceptual tools". They are understood as theoretical constructs to interprete the teaching of mathematics. The changes in the modes of participating and using the DM theory to analyze the tasks show different levels of learning the necessary knowledge to teach mathematics. The analysis of the discourses enabled us to characterize the ways in which the PPTs participated and used conceptual tools as evidences of learning in the VLE. These changes seem to be related to the conditions of discussion in the online debates and the design of the tasks in the VLE.

Keywords:

learning to teach, online debates, conceptual tools.