Abstract:

In our presentation we would like to describe the experience of the pedagogical innovations implemented in the frames of the Morelos State educational program for gifted children in primary education (IEBEM -Instituto de Educación Básica del Estado de Morelos).
Based on the National Plan of Development 2001-2006 this program is developed under the supervision of the Council of Basic Education in Mexico (SEP -Secretaría de Educación Pública) in order to attend the special educational necessities of children with extraordinary aptitudes.

The scholar period 2011-2012 offered a program of logic mathematics thinking for 160 children selected from different public schools and our program has been focused on the development of the mathematical logic thinking in order to prepare them for the mathematical competitions organized for these levels, by the Mexican Academy of Sciences.

We implemented 5 hours sessions as weekend workshops, directed by a group of professors of the Faculty of Sciences of the Morelos State University together with students and graduated students interested in the mathematical education.

Nevertheless the program for the second year has been changed with the focus on the integral development of intellectual formation of children with interest to natural sciences, because it was detected that the children are not so much interested in the competitions, rather they prefer some kind of explorative activities in collaboration with others.
Still we look for the explanation of this phenomena, since our experience with the preparation of children of the same ages for the mathematical Olympiads demonstrate the desire and high interest to achieve the level to be selected for the delegation of our state.

Some preliminary observations which could explain the lack of completion.

In general the activities where there required the mortise distress and ability, are not well accepted by the majority of the group, rather they prefer activities which require the mental ability.

In the case when a student with the experience of the previous year presents the solution on the blackboard, there is much more acceptance and curiosity compared with the explanation given by a tutor. Nevertheless the level of curiosity fall down and further the children prefer some sort of collective activities.

Thus the series of experimental and play activities have been suggested so that the children would develop gradually different abilities as well as activate the cognitive recourses which are needed for the problems solving. Employing of the hand work activities and picture based representations which refer to the everyday life helps a lot to motivate the children to concentrate on the solution of problems and to keep the attention during the sessions.

Keywords:

Innovative strategies, mediation, hand working activities.