Proyecto Pensalo (Think About It Project) – Improving children’s math skills through educational technologies)
Technology these days comes in multiple forms and shapes: laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc. But when it comes to younger children, one needs to be more creative, particularly if we want to take advantage of technology as a learning tool. In this sense, the Pensalo project fosters math and programming abilities of girls and boys through an innovative actor: Betico, a robot that students can program and use to formulate and solve problems – without a doubt, much more fun than just having to learn math concepts by heart.
Problematic
Latin America and the Caribbean lags far behind other regions on the PISA mathematics rankings. An increase in primary education coverage in the region has not seen accompanying improvements in girls’ and boys’ learning abilities, missing a valuable opportunity to equip them with pre-mathematics knowledge that could help them develop other skills throughout their lives. In Costa Rica, as in the rest of LAC, there is little evidence of successful strategies to develop this type of aptitudes. At the same time, there is a need to generate and test creative teaching and learning initiatives that take advantage of technological advances and educators’ coaching.
Solution
The program under implementation assesses the effects of the use of technologies to foster preschool children’s programming skills. The schools that have adopted the Pensalo program conduct 40-minute sessions 4 times a week, in which children program the robot. In this sense –and by definition– Betico does not work alone, for teachers and parents also participate in the program. On the one hand, teachers receive training on its mechanism, getting monthly sessions with a tutor who provides them with tips to improve their classes as well as information cards, a guide, and a story, all of which introduce the concepts needed to program the robot. On the other hand, the parents also receive the story and are encouraged to read it to their children at home.
Evaluation and Impact
In process. A total of 392 schools were allocated at random to a treatment group that receives the Pensalo program and to a control group that does not. The math classes will be taped in a 30-school sample to monitor implementation quality. We shall soon know whether Betico, accompanied by teachers and parents, can improve children’s pre-math skills.