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    Research group in Mathematics Education

    Members:

    • Umberto Dello Iacono 
    • Eva Ferrara Dentice 



      Keywords:

    • Students’ difficulties and misconceptions
    • Visual programming
    • Computer-based environments
    • Digital technologies
    • Learning interfaces
    • Problem solving and text comprehension
    • Inquiry model and decision making

    Research Profile:

    • Students’ difficulties and misconceptions on symmetries, visual programming, and computer-based environments.

    The researchers involved in the project, in collaboration with researchers from other universities, Ph.D. Students and Research Fellows, investigated students’ difficulties and misconceptions on symmetries, and designed educational activities for students at all school levels, with the aim of overcoming them. The students were introduced to the study of isometries starting from the observation of the aesthetic properties of real-world objects, such as rosettes, ornamental friezes, flooring, and wallpapers. Based on these experiences, didactic activities have been designed and implemented, also exploiting the potential and characteristics of computer-based environments, in particular of the Scratch programming language,which represents a didactically suitable tool as it allows students to interact dynamically with the environment. The didactic activities, also involving the use of a digital artifact, were effective in detecting students’ difficulties with symmetries and in providing them with tools to be able to overcome them.

    • Learning interfaces

    Over recent years research in mathematics education has focused on the design of Vygotskian Computer-Based Learning Activities inspired by the Vygotskian educational model so as to foster the development of students’ competences. These learning activities are usually implemented on e-learning platforms, e.g., Moodle. Despite research highlighted the effectiveness of these products, their dissemination in schools and their use in teaching/learning practice with students is still weak. Considering that the re-design of learning activities requires very experienced users, teachers could encounter several challenges trying to using them autonomously, these could be the reason why a gap between the implementation of the product and its effective use is observed. The main aim of this research is to develop learning interfaces for the engineering of Vygotskian computer-based learning activities, in order to make them accessible and usable by teachers - or trainers - and to promote their wide dissemination in schools.

    • Problem solving and text comprehension

    Problem solving is an activity that causes difficulties for many students, regardless of school order, often related to the phase of understanding the text of the problem itself. The national indications for the secondary school highlight the need to plan interdisciplinary activities to enhance students’ ability to use natural language to understand texts of various types. In this regard, learning activities were designed and experimented with the aim of improving students’ skills in interpreting a mathematical text. Analysis of the experimentation data shows that designed learning activities seems to be effective in promoting the activation of appropriate solving processes by the students, as well as the production of arguments in support of the given answers. Most students, after working on text comprehension, improved the correctness of their answers and/or produced arguments to support them.

    • Inquiry model and decision making

    The current historical context requires that the school recognizes as fundamental the equality of educational opportunities and promotes the achievement of appropriate levels of knowledge and skills by all, to ensure to all students high levels of mastery, or at least fully appropriate, of the basic skills in the educational curricula. Therefore, a convergent personalization is fundamental, with respect to which the differentiation of training paths and the programmed and opportunely diversified technical solutions allow everyone to achieve common training goals. Thus, from an operational point of view, teaching becomes a decision-making problem. An interesting research question is whether decision theory applied to mathematics teaching/learning can be an effective tool for developing personalized educational strategies for students with SLD. The development of a decision model that considers both the relevant results of research in mathematics education and the hierarchical analytical method of Saaty and the enforcement of this model to a case study made it possible to build a personalized teaching strategy that appeared to be effective.

    Current research projects:

     

    1. Liceo Matematico UniCampania (part of the national project Liceo Matematico)
    2. “Comprendere il testo matematico” (Understanding mathematical text)
    3. National education project “Matematica e digitale”, in implementation of a collaboration protocol between the Ministry of Education and the Foundation “I Lincei per la scuola" as part of the PNSD (Piano Nazionale Scuola Digitale).

     

    Recent publications:

    1. Albano, G., Dello Iacono, U., & Mariotti, M.A. (2021). An E-Learning Innovative Approach for Mathematical Argumentative Thinking. International Journal for Technology in Mathematics Education, 28(1), pp. 3-14, DOI: 10.1564/tme_v28.4.01.
    2. Brunetto, D., & Dello Iacono, U. (to appear). Teachers’ understanding of digital technology. International Journal for Technology in Mathematics Education.
    3. Brunetto, D., & Dello Iacono, U. (2022). Teachers’ understanding of digital technology. Proc. of Conference on Digital Tools in Mathematics Education (CADGME 2022), Jerusalem (pp. 87-88).
    4. Crisci, R., Dello Iacono, U., & Ferrara Dentice, E. (2022). Axial symmetry in primary school through computer programming: an instrumental approach. Proc. of Conference on Digital Tools in Mathematics Education (CADGME 2022), Jerusalem (pp. 58-59).
    5. Crisci, R., Dello Iacono, U., & Ferrara Dentice, E. (to appear), A computer programming-based digital artifact to introduce axial symmetry in primary school: an instrumental approach, International Journal for Technology in Mathematics Education.
    6. Crisci, R., Dello Iacono, U., & Ferrara Dentice, E. (2022). A digital artefact based on visual programming for the learning of axial symmetry in primary school (con Rosamaria Crisci e Umberto Dello Iacono), Twelfth Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (CERME12), Feb 2022, Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. hal-03748428
    7. Dello Iacono, U. (2021). From argumentation to proof in geometry within a collaborative computer-based environment. Digital Experiences in Mathematics Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40751-021-00090-y.
    8. Dello Iacono, U. (2022). Promoting online collaborative learning on moodle platform with the “quick chat” plugin. HUMAN REVIEW. International Humanities Review/Revista Internacional de Humanidades, 11(Monográfico), 1-10.
    9. Dello Iacono, U. (2022). “Quick chat” plugin:  promoting online collaborative learning on Moodle platform. In D. Caldevilla Domínguez (Ed.) Libro de actas del CUICIID 2022 (Congreso Universitario Internacional sobre la Comunicación en la profesión y en la Universidad de hoy: Contenidos, Investigación, Innovación y Docencia), (p. 553), Editorial: Fórum Internacional de Comunicación y Relaciones públicas (Fórum XXI).
    10. Dello Iacono, U. (2022). An e-learning collaborative environment to support the move from argumentation to proof in mathematics. Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching (JCMST), 41(2), 29-43.
    11. Dello Iacono, U., Amorese, T., Cuciniello, M., & Mannillo, C.V. (2021). User-friendly interfaces for Vygotskian computer-based learning activities. Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (JSCI), 19(2), 23-29.
    12. Dello Iacono, U., & Ferrara Dentice, E. (2020). Mathematical walks in search of symmetries: from visualization to conceptualization. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology. DOI:10.1080/0020739X.2020.1850897.
    13. Dello Iacono, U., Ferrara Dentice, E., Mannillo, C. V., & Vitale, M. L. (2022). Dalla comprensione del testo alla risoluzione del problema: un’esperienza nella scuola secondaria di secondo grado}, Didattica della matematica. Dalla ricerca alle pratiche d’aula, (12), pp. 9-21. https://doi.org/10.33683/ddm.22.12.1
    14. Ventre, V., Dello Iacono, U., Ferrara Dentice, E. & Martino, R. (2022). Models and theories for the choice of teaching strategies in mathematics, Italian Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, 48, pp. 125-144.
    15. Ventre, V., Ferrara Dentice, E., & Martino, R. (2020). Teaching as a decision-making model: strategies in mathematics from a practical requirement, Ratio Mathematica, 39 (2020), pp. 111-136. https://doi.org/10.23755/rm.v39i0.559.

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