Strategy for improving the teaching and learning of integers in the eighth grade of the Nueva Tarqui Educational Unit

Abstract

Introduction: The improvement of the teaching and learning of integers is an important topic that has been studied from different angles by teachers and researchers. Their work highlights existing difficulties and offers proposals for their solutions; however, shortcomings persist. Theoretical and practical references are drawn from various research projects and teaching-learning documents, including the Diagnostic Assessment Guide Disaggregated by Levels and Sublevels of the Learning Reinforcement Service in Basic General Education. Materials and Methods: The study used different materials, methods, and techniques with a mixed approach, considering and coherently integrating numerical and qualitative data. The general methodology was characterized by three concatenated stages: diagnosis, strategy modeling, and validation. A sample of 10 eighth-grade students was taken from a population of 37, who were evaluated before and after the use of the strategy. Two interviews were conducted with teachers: one with 10 teachers during the diagnostic phase and another with six teachers during the validation phase. In addition, five teachers were selected and given four tasks to delve deeper into specific elements of the diagnostic process. Results: A strategy is presented for improving the teaching and learning of integers in eighth grade. This strategy takes into account the relationship between paper-and-pencil activities and those carried out with GeoGebra, as well as adjusting the complexity level of exercises and problems. Discussion: Although the importance of teaching and learning integers in eighth grade is recognized, several shortcomings persist among both students and teachers, particularly a tendency toward immediate execution, without properly analyzing the data from the exercises and problems or assessing possible solutions. Conclusions: Comparisons of student assessment results before and after using the strategy, as well as the opinions expressed by the interviewees, support the effectiveness of the strategy developed and support the idea that using a teaching strategy in the teaching-learning process of integers in eighth grade, which takes into account the relationship between pencil-and-paper activities and those carried out with GeoGebra, as well as adjusting the level of complexity of the exercises and problems, will improve the process.