The proposals of what should be the learning of mathematics in secondary education enter public discussion this Tuesday and advocate for changes such as being a subject “for everyone” and that students can use in their daily lives.
The suggestions are from the working group created by the Government in 2018, which evaluated the problems of teaching mathematics in Portugal, analyzed the current model (defined in the mandate of former Minister Nuno Crato) and designed amendment proposals that will be in public discussion until September.
Among the reasons for revising the teaching of mathematics is the failure – one in three students ends the 9th grade with a refusal to the subject – and the fact that many young people stop following the sciences because of math.
Among the proposals of the working group made up of mathematicians, teachers and specialists in education, the idea of a “Mathematics for everyone”that is to say, that it be “available to everyone”, where “formalisms and excessive levels of abstraction must be avoided”.
Another of the “innovative curricular ideas” is that schools have “Mathematics for citizenship”, among other things because students must have “tools to analyze the social processes that underlie the exercise of active citizenship”.
In this sense, the essential lessons should introduce topics such as “electoral models and processes”, “the analysis of financial models”, as well as assess the development of “statistical literacy”.
Regarding financial education, the authors of the proposal highlight the importance of students being able to use mathematics in matters such as salaries, taxes, discounts or promotions.
“Valuing computational thinking” is another of the “innovative ideas of the curriculum”, according to the documents of the working group that presented different proposals for the discipline of Mathematics A (aimed at students of Science and Technology and Socioeconomic degrees). Science), Math B (for Visual Arts), and Career Math.
Source: Observadora
