Contexto sociocultural del estudiante como facilitador de su aprendizaje sobre conceptos de funciones en matemática

In Costa Rica, many secondary students have serious difficulties to establish relationships between mathematics and real-life contexts. They question the utilitarian role of the school mathematics. This fact motivated the research object of this report which evidences the need to overcome methodologies unrelated to students’ reality, toward new didactical options that help students to value mathematics, reasoning and its applications, connecting it with their socio-cultural context. The research used a case study as a qualitative methodology and the social constructivism as an educational paradigm in which the knowledge is built by the student; as a product of his social interactions. A collection of learning situations was designed, validated, and implemented. It allowed establishing relationships between mathematical concepts and the socio-cultural context of participants. It analyzed the impact of students’socio-cultural context in their mathematics learning of basic concepts of real variable functions, consistent with the Ministry of Education (MEP) Official Program. Among the results, it was found that using students’sociocultural context improved their motivational processes, mathematics sense making, and promoted cooperative social interactions. It was evidenced that contextualized learning situations favored concepts comprehension that allow students to see mathematics as a discipline closely related with their every-day life. En Costa Rica, muchos estudiantes de secundaria presentan dificultades para relacionar la matemática con su cotidianidad. Por ello, a menudo, se les escucha preguntar sobre la utilidad de lo aprendido en el contexto escolar. Por tal razón, la investigación aquí reportada evidencia la necesidad de trascender metodologías desligadas de la realidad del estudiante hacia nuevas opciones didácticas que valoren la Matemática, sus razonamientos y aplicaciones, desde su contexto sociocultural. Se usó el estudio de casos como metodología cualitativa y el constructivismo social como paradigma educativo, donde los individuos son constructores de conocimiento, a partir de sus interacciones sociales. Se diseñó, validó e implementó una colección de situaciones de aprendizaje que permitían relacionar conceptos matemáticos con el contexto sociocultural de los participantes. Se analizó el impacto del contexto sociocultural del estudiante en su aprendizaje Matemático de conceptos básicos de funciones reales, según programa oficial de Matemáti