At be.Living, we see mathematics as a living field of knowledge, full of possibilities and applications, and constantly developing.
We don’t view mathematics the way it used to be viewed: as a set and closed field, just waiting for children to discover as the only possible path to take.
Rather, we understand that mathematical language varies greatly, is vast in tools, and has many possible paths.
“Although mathematics is in nature, it is a human construct: it is the human being who will mathematize what it is observing in spaces, contexts, and over time. Because we understand that it is constantly changing, our teaching and learning proposal thinks of mathematics as a construct for each child, considering a wide variety of resources and possibilities, in addition to each student’s own creative particularity”, explains Débora Pacheco, elementary school teacher at be.Living.
According to Débora, a teacher’s job is to present this wide range to the children so that they can choose which tools they will use in order to solve the various problems that may arise in their daily lives.
“Let’s think of a very simple example of solving: a calculation of addition. We assume that there is not only one way to reach the result, such as the well-known standard algorithm. We believe that they can come to that same result using very different paths. Here at be.Living, the teaching and learning of mathematics is guided by investigation. Since there is no predetermined path to follow, the children are invited to investigate possibilities of how to reach the solution to each problem”.
The teacher explains that mathematical problems can often arise from real-life situations, such as selling candy, or through pure and true mathematical investigation. In both situations, the child is being asked to develop investigative procedures.
“Along with this investigative method, we also focus on procedures, through which children will analyze all the hypotheses and tests and what resulted from each test so that they can validate the most effective paths. Because the child needs to communicate—and communicate mathematically—we even work on an argumentation procedure so that the path can be validated or invalidated.”
This is the kind of mathematical work we do at be.Living: a powerful investigation procedure that enables children (and in future, adults), to look at the world in a deeper way.
“When a graph appears in a newspaper or social media post, I will look at it in a more investigative and critical way, not just as statistics on a page. Statistics are widely used today to validate information. When we have a more critical and investigative eye, we will look at these statistics in another way. What is the context of these statistics? What does this graph mean besides these statistics that I’m looking at? I will really look at it more critically. We always end up talking about statistics, but mathematics involves other paths too. In the case of geometry, we take a more relevant look at space, and other ways to interact with these spaces as well as relate to dimensions. We go through the different branches of mathematics (geometry, algebra, arithmetic) always with the goal of developing the childrens’ investigative and critical look at the world.
