Abstract

GARCIA RETANA, José Ángel. Ordinary Language: A Key to Problem-Based Math Learning. Rev. Actual. Investig. Educ [online]. 2015, vol.15, n.1, pp.495-519. ISSN 1409-4703.

In the year 2012, the Ministry of Public Education of Costa Rica recommended a new proposal for the teaching of mathematics in order to respond to current social and economic requirements. This proposal is grounded on problem-based learning (PBL) as a methodological learning strategy. For the learning of mathematics, such a proposal demands for a co-existing relationship between the ordinary language and the mathematical language, considering ordinary language as the central aspect in the educational process. This type of learning should be conceptualized in its two-way function; as a resource to solve problems, and as a discipline, to represent concepts, based on the premise that the mathematical language allows concepts to be represented in two different ways: semantically and graphic-visually. In fact, these concept representations are largely determined by the ordinary language as well. Thus, ordinary language and its semantic field constitute the cross-curricular axis for the learning of this methodological strategy.

Keywords : ordinary language; mathematics; problems; learning.

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