Resumo

VILCHEZ-QUESADA, Enrique. Case Study: Teaching and Computer-Assisted Learning Strategy for a Discrete Mathematics Course through the Use of the VilCretas Package in the Wolfram Mathematica Software. Educare [online]. 2019, vol.23, n.2, pp.242-266. ISSN 1409-4258.  http://dx.doi.org/10.15359/ree.23-2.13.

This research paper presents the results obtained in a descriptive case study carried out on two experimental groups of a course of discrete mathematics at the National University of Costa Rica (UNA). At the UNA, a computer-assisted teaching and learning strategy was implemented based on the use of a software package created by the author, named VilCretas; its platform of use is provided by Wolfram Mathematica, a commercial program. The methodology used in this research was mixed in nature, combining a participant observation, during the first half of the year 2017, with the application of a questionnaire at the end of the experience. The study focused on determining the level of satisfaction shown in the student population in terms of learning activities developed, and the identification of strengths and weaknesses in the use of the VilCretas package as a didactic resource to support teaching in the field of finite mathematics. The analysis of results was established from an instrument conformed by a Likert scale, where the arithmetic mean of the values, whose representation corresponds to the answers per individual, is estimated. In addition, a test of Student’s hypothesis t was applied to compare the academic performance shown by the experimental groups and a control group. The study shares a series of evidence of the positive characteristics that the VilCretas package has under a didactic perspective and, in a binding way, the contribution provided by the laboratory-type activities that were used with the participating students, to produce better learning.

Palavras-chave : discrete mathematics; learning; perception; VilCretas software package; teaching.

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