Abstract:

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced all educational institutions to use distance learning and to move from the classroom to a virtual space, as the only alternative to a complete generalized block.

After the most serious phase of the pandemic, in Italy, Ministerial Decree n° 89 of 7 August 2020 established that school activities must be managed through integrated digital teaching: a complementary didactic modality that combines distance activities (provided in synchronous or asynchronous mode) to the face to face activities in order to guarantee the regularity of the formative interventions in case there were positive students at Covid-19.

The aim of this contribution is to focus on the strategies and methodologies adopted for mathematics teaching in upper secondary school in distance learning or blended learning. National and international surveys provide a snapshot of the didactic situation experienced during the emergency period and report the prevalence of transmissive teaching approaches, centred more on traditional lessons and mechanical learning, with a prevalence of assessment of learning (certification assessment). In upper secondary school, even before the lockdown, Mathematics classroom appears as a laboratory of experiential practices, a place where students and teachers interact, negotiate, share and construct meanings according to a socio-constructivist perspective. Teacher centred methodologies are integrated by student centred methodologies; in particular, problem solving is one of the main methodologies that activate strategic and metacognitive skills, in individual or collaborative mode, through the following phases: understanding, visualization, operations planning, result forecasting, calculation and evaluation. Methodologically, a literature review carried out in order to draw a summary framework on the object of analysis. The research questions that have guided this work are: What didactic strategies were used for Mathematics teaching in upper secondary school during distance learning? What experiences do national and international surveys report? What were the learning effects?

The results of the review show that the Covid-19 epidemic has highlighted the transversal nature of Mathematical literacy and the effectiveness of training courses that utilize the combined use of direct teaching, metacognitive strategies and teamwork. In this way, mathematics teachers were able to involve, motivate and make students participate, by ensuring the achievement of learning goals even in a virtual environment.

The analysis carried out shows not only the factors that have distinguished the teaching-learning process during integrated digital teaching, but also reflects on the possible opportunities offered by a blended approach.

While, on the one hand, face-to-face teaching is bound to the space-time limits of the classroom and to the rigid division of time into disciplinary lessons, on the other hand, e-learning offers multiple opportunities to innovate practices and to better involve learners.

Keywords:

Distance learning, blended learning, Mathematics teaching, upper secondary school, state of the art.