Research on numerical cognition in Latin American countries (Investigación sobre cognición numérica en países latinoamericanos)

Abstract

Towards evidenced-guided reforms on the mathematics educationOver the last few decades, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) countries have increased their spending on education (Bertoni et al., 2018) significantly. Governments have raised the salaries of teachers to signal the importance of education and to attract more students to select the teaching profession. Likewise, many reforms and programmes have been introduced to improve learning, especially in disadvantaged schools and areas. The available data suggest that increased spending combined with economic and social reforms have had an impact on educational outcomes such as improvement on primary and secondary completion rates and a slowly declining number of very poor performers. There has also been modest but sustained progress in closing the learning gap with more developed countries. However, education systems in LAC countries still lag significantly behind most developed countries in terms of student performance in international assessments, which illustrates persistent learning gaps. To guarantee that this slow progress in LAC countries would continue, we need to increase the amount of multidisciplinary collaboration in school development.One crucial aspect of the development of school and education is that the reforms should be based on tested ideas and solid research. Therefore, a constant dialogue between research and practice is required. To advance this discussion, we built this particular issue by inviting top experts from seven LAC countries to present the state-of-the-art situation in their countries. We focus on the current state of research in numerical cognition and how this new knowledge has or could contribute to educational practices. Naturally, raising the research on numerical cognition into focus for developing education and educational practices is a narrow perspective when we consider all the factors connected to learning and teaching. In Figure 1, we present a simplified influence diagram to put our question dealt with in this special issue in a broader context. The figure illustrates the complex and multifactorial nature of the whole topic as a research area.

The quandary of diagnosing mathematical difficulties in a generally low performing population

“…Pairwise comparisons indicated that 5 th graders' scores were higher than those of 4 th and 3 rd graders, and 4 th graders' scores were higher than those of 3 rd graders. There also was a significant main effect of operation, F (2,1321) =1085.34, p<0.001, ⴄ p 2 =0.26. Pairwise comparisons indicated that addition operations were solved better than subtraction and multiplication operations and that subtraction operations were solved better than multiplication operations.…”

“…1 For this reason, many countries have increased investments in basic mathematical education. [1][2][3] Despite increased international recognition and higher investments in mathematical education, mathematical achievement in several countries remains a cause for concern. 4 This is especially the case in Brazil.…”

The quandary of diagnosing mathematical difficulties in a generally low performing population

“…In addition to and beyond being crucial for everyday life activities such as reading the clock, evaluating change, and measuring ingredients specified in a recipe, numerical and mathematical abilities also predict an individual's life prospects such as employment, income, and social as well as psychological well-being, even after controlling for reading abilities (Bynner & Parsons, 2005;Ritchie & Bates, 2013). Not surprisingly, numerical and mathematical abilities have thus been considered important economic factors in our post-industrial societies (Beddington et al, 2008;Haase et al, 2020;Kotzé, 2019). Mathematics is an important predictor of scientific and technological development, which seems important for success in competitive global economies.…”

“…Mathematics is an important predictor of scientific and technological development, which seems important for success in competitive global economies. For this reason, many countries have increased investments in basic mathematical education (Beddington et al, 2008;Haase et al, 2020;Kotzé, 2019). Despite increased international recognition and higher investments in mathematical education, mathematical achievement in several countries remains a cause for concern (Haase & Krinzinger, 2019).…”