María del Carmen Canto López
University of Cadiz, Spain
New lines of research in mathematical cognition.
Participants: Josetxu Orrantia; María del Carmen Canto-López;Carlos Mera; Estibaliz Aragón
Introduction: Specialists in education and educational research focus on providing answers to the needs of students in mathematics. To this end, new lines of research are opening up with the aim of providing new methods and resources that adapt to the educational reality, thus contextualising learning through the use of technological tools and new methodological strategies. Likewise, in a cross-cutting manner, it is important to address the social variables that revolve around student learning and analyse the impact they have on mathematical performance. Methods: In order to shed light on the subject, several studies are presented that shed new light on this area of knowledge, in relation to numerical knowledge of fractions. On the other hand, evidence is presented on the use of digital applications aimed at improving mathematical learning at an early age. As well as the influence of the implementation of alternative teaching-learning strategies in mathematics, considering the gender gap. Results: The results show progress in the area of study on mathematical cognition, specifically on the understanding of numerical magnitudes, the effectiveness of digital resources complementary to learning and the implementation of teaching methodologies. Discussion: The new lines of research in mathematical learning and the findings presented corroborate the need to take into consideration cognitive processes and the use of gamified resources in the approach to mathematics teaching-learning methodologies. These findings should be transferred to the educational community and can be applied to educational practice in schools. Finally, attending to the improvement of education, specifically in mathematical competences, will result in satisfactory benefits for students and for society in general.
María del Carmen Canto López holds a PhD in Health Sciences, Cum Laude, in Education and Psychology from the University of Cádiz in 2017. She holds a Diploma in Special Education Teaching (2003), a Degree in Psychopedagogy (2007) and a Master in Psychological Intervention in risk contexts (2013). She currently works as a substitute lecturer and researcher in the Faculty of Education Sciences, within the area of Developmental and Educational Psychology. She teaches on the Bachelor's Degrees in Early Childhood Education, Primary Education and Psychology. In 2021, she was hired as doctoral research staff in the Department of Psychology. She belongs to the research group HUM-634 (https://hum634.uca.es/) since 2017, member of the INDESS institute (since December 2022) and participates as a member of the research team in national and regional projects. In 2012 he completed a 6-month pre-doctoral stay at the University of Tampere (Finland) and a 1-month pre-doctoral stay at the University of Concepción in Chile, for the analysis of mathematical learning methodologies. Since 2015 I have participated as a speaker at national and international conferences. His main line of research is the study of cognitive processes involved in mathematical learning, learning difficulties, educational gamification, educational robotics and the use of alternative methodologies for teaching mathematics, as well as the design of educational PPPs following the guidelines of the open number-based methodology (ABN).
