Math Teachers Share Experiences with Peers in the Region

National Counterparts of the member countries of the Regional Project ¡Me Gusta Matemática! (“I Like Math!”), El Salvador, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Honduras, as well as Bolivia and Ecuador as observers, gathered in Tegucigalpa, Honduras from April 20 to May 1, 2009 in order to improve the training of math pedagogy and exchange experiences of every participant country. The meeting took place within the progress of the 4th Regional Mathematics Workshop.

According to Mr. Toshio Murata, Chief Adviser of the Project of Improvement of Teaching Technique in the Field of Mathematics (PROMETAM, its acronym in Spanish), an effort supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the workshop had four specific components: the elaboration of an annual plan, the evaluation of education, the exchange of experiences, and the Lesson Study through means of an open class. “We hope to strengthen the elaboration of material and the training processes,” Mr. Murata said.

The Project seeks to strengthen math education through a process of improvement of the scientific knowledge of the subject. To achieve this, the Project benefits directly from the exchange of experiences amongst participant countries. “Honduras has shared its knowledge with other countries, transferring experiences and aiding with technical assistance from trained personnel,” Mr. Murata explained, “each country has taken advantage of this while adapting the Project’s outputs to their own national needs.”

These experiences are based on the Project’s foundation: provide and help the comprehension of the scientific approach of math to children inside the classroom. This has been successfully inserted in the Project’s texts: the Teacher’s Guide and the Student’s Work Book. “The work book was made for children, considering the way they learn,” Mr. Murata said. This book, according to the Chief Adviser, helps make students become the leading role inside a classroom. “The texts are vital for the Project, not only for its content, but also because it contributes to achieve an educational system that catalyzes the development of the human resource and the country’s progress as well.” Seminar participant Maria Flores, a teacher from El Salvador, said the exchange of experiences, particularly the one acquired from Honduras allowed her country “to adapt texts, guides and work books into the agenda of the Secretariat of Education of El Salvador.”

The Workshop also included the participation of Japanese expert, Professor Toshiyuki Nakata, a teacher from the University of Tsukuba in Japan. Professor Nakata praised the interest of Project participants in their effort to apply the methodology of a Lesson Study, a methodology which leads to the improvement of scientific knowledge as practiced by the Project. “The benefit of a Lesson Study is that it helps teachers open their eyes to the way they teach,” Professor Nakata explained. This is done through an evaluation process performed by the teacher’s peers post class time. Also, he recommended teachers to embrace the opinion of their students, considering the student’s opinion would be the way to help shape a better performance in the classroom.

Within the framework of the workshop, an example class was executed in the National University of Pedagogy Francisco Morazan (UPNFM, Spanish acronym). This final event counted with the participation of students from the 5th grade of the Center of Investigation and Innovation of Education (CIIE). Approximately 400 attended the event.