Abstract

MORALES URBINA, Esther María. Background knowledge and its importance in mathematical language comprehension in higher education. uct [online]. 2009, vol.13, n.52, pp.211-222. ISSN 1316-4821.

This work, wich is within the qualitative methodology frame, was developed in the collaborative research-action perspective, in wich teachers and students were involved in a recognition and comprehension of the dynamic surrounding a teaching-learning of Mathematics I (the first course in engineering disciplines), at UNEXPO-VRPO. Collaborators teachers planned different actions in their respective acting field according to their necessities. A strategic plan for improving the new student background was designed. It was intended to interpret these changes implications and evaluate their results. In this context, it was shown that the background evaluation helps the teacher to determine the proper depth level for treating a new topic, by emphasizing it or including by incorporating new elements, if its domain is considered important for comprehension of the new topic. In a similar way, it was shown that the learning situations design, considering the previous structures known by the students and their attitude towards learning process, allows to assimilating and accommodating new learning object meaning, and new operations associated to them.

Keywords : Educational Innovation; Learning Evaluation; Mathematics Learning; Investigation-action collaborative; University Education.