Abstract:

Using sound and music as a metaphor to approach curricular mathematical contents in Primary Education seems an interesting field that deserves some research given that both music and sound could:
1) act as scaffolding of learning;
2) anchor new information in the social and cultural context of learning;
3) be part of situated knowledge; and
4) offer a new perspective for learning mathematics at schools, giving pupils opportunities to develop their own mental representations.

The present work-in-progress shows the design, implementation and assessment of AudioFractions, part of a educational software package called Sound Interactive Mathematics conceived to aid mathematical learning through sound and music in Chilean Primary Education.

Adopting a cognitivist theory based on social and situated learning of mathematics, we adopted a three-stage plan:
1) generating significative metaphors relating graphic representations of fractions to sound and music.
2) Implementing functional software prototypes and the didactic guidelines for teachers, which required an in-the-field successful usability evaluation.
3) Assessing the software.

Pupils in risk of social exclusion at three priority public schools in Santiago de Chile (N=137; 9-11 years old) experimented with AudioFractions in a 60-minutes session. After, pupils filled a questionnaire with their perceptions about the software, included their emotions. Results of the four assessment dimensions show high scores and an excellent reception of AudioFractions. Evaluation shows an excellent positive emotional balance as well: pupils felt more positive emotions than negative ones while working with AudioFractions. This could be an indicator of validation with respect to the assessment dimensions.

Keywords:

Mathematical teaching-learning, music and sound metaphor, educational software, fractions and rational numbers.