The logical-mathematical thinking of students. A didactic matter?

Abstract

The obtained results in Ecuador in the report of the International Student Assessment Program administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2018, the Ser Bachiller test; and, recently, the Higher Education admission exam reveals a deep weakness in learning and developing problem-solving skills. The methodological heritage of teachers is not helping to solve this issue, which is why this article aims to analyze the creative didactic strategies and the logical-mathematical thinking of adolescents from a public school in Portoviejo canton. A descriptive and correlational quantitative study was carried out to determine findings that facilitate the explanation of this problematic situation. In the fieldwork, a bank of questions was applied to students and a survey was applied to math teachers. The results show that 85.7 % of adolescents have a score lower than 7, which means that they have not exceeded the required learning levels in problem-solving. For their part, teachers use creative didactic processes very frequently but with limited time for students to reflect on possible solutions to a problem. The teacher assumes a great responsibility in the mathematics learning process because he is the mediator of building that knowledge so that students can understand it.