15-year-old Brazilian students, assessed by Pisa (acronym in English for Program for International Student Assessment), 2022 edition, were unable to solve very simple mathematics questions. Of the total, 73% recorded low performance in the subject.
For professor Miguel Ribeiro, coordinator of Ciespmat (Research and Training Group – Specialized Interpretive Knowledge of Mathematics Teachers), the teacher's knowledge is what most impacts student results. The difficulties of students assessed in Pisa therefore reflect the difficulties of teachers. “But what knowledge do we need to have to develop a different practice from what we had as students?”, asks Ribeiro.
According to the professor, it is necessary to invest in continuing education so that the teaching of the subject is "pedagogically exciting and mathematically innovative, so that students develop ways of thinking mathematically and understanding mathematics over time, and not in a compartmentalized way like the most of us have learned." This means understanding the connections between different mathematical themes and topics. Ribeiro adds that there are many deficiencies in teacher training.
The professor details these issues in this edition of the Analisa videocast.
