Full packaged learning solutions for studying mathematics at school

© 2018 by the authors. The speed of modern changes in the system of teaching reflects an unprecedented accelerated renewal of means, forms and methods of teaching. Today, it is very important to test new learning solutions that reduce teachers' time on organization of students' educational activities. The idea of solving this problem is to combine the theory and practice of taking managerial actions and pedagogy in order to identify the type of learning solutions that reduce teachers' time, in particular teachers of mathematics, to prepare for classes. Thus, the purpose of the article is to justify full packaged learning solutions as an effective means of reducing the time spent on organizing the educational activities of schoolchildren. The authors of the article have determined the full packaged product as a package of program-methodical and subject-developing support that can be used by consumers of educational services (children, parents, teachers, administrators, employers) for independent use (a turn-key project). The leading methods of research are monitoring the organizational activities of teachers during math lessons, talking to teachers, analyzing methodical work and teachers' profiles, modeling and statistical processing of research results. As a result of the 2016-2017 experiment, where 21 teachers of mathematics took part, the authors of the article have defined types of learning solutions for mathematics teachers (adjustable, integrated and packaged); have described the stages of development and phases of creating a full packaged learning solution. Evaluation of the effectiveness of using full packaged product allowed to make a conclusion about an average decrease of time costs by 22% while preparing for classes. The theoretical significance of the article is due to the contribution to the development of scientific ideas about the means of methodical support for teachers of mathematics. The practical use of the proposed methods allows to organize a step-by-step transition from the development of adjustable solutions to full packaged learning solutions for studying school mathematics that contribute to reducing teachers' time spent on the organization of educational activities of students. The value of the full packaged product is justified with the help of a "project triangle", which connects key parameters for assessing the effectiveness of providing methodical support to mathematics teachers: the amount of work, time and costs. Changing the value of one parameter leads to changes of the values of others. Full packaged product allows to balance these parameters and achieve the planned educational result

From Legos and Logos to Lambda: A Hypothetical Learning Trajectory for Computational Thinking

This thesis utilizes design-based research to examine the integration of computational thinking and computer science into the Finnish elementary mathematics syllabus. Although its focus is on elementary mathematics, its scope includes the perspectives of students, teachers and curriculum planners at all levels of the Finnish school curriculum. The studied artifacts are the 2014 Finnish National Curriculum and respective learning solutions for computer science education. The design-based research (DBR) mandates educators, developers and researchers to be involved in the cyclic development of these learning solutions. Much of the work is based on an in-service training MOOC for Finnish mathematics teachers, which was developed in close operation with the instructors and researchers. During the study period, the MOOC has been through several iterative design cycles, while the enactment and analysis stages of the 2014 Finnish National Curriculum are still proceeding.The original contributions of this thesis lie in the proposed model for teaching computational thinking (CT), and the clarification of the most crucial concepts in computer science (CS) and their integration into a school mathematics syllabus. The CT model comprises the successive phases of abstraction, automation and analysis interleaved with the threads of algorithmic and logical thinking as well as creativity. Abstraction implies modeling and dividing the problem into smaller sub-problems, and automation making the actual implementation. Preferably, the process iterates in cycles, i.e., the analysis feeds back such data that assists in optimizing and evaluating the efficiency and elegance of the solution. Thus, the process largely resembles the DBR design cycles. Test-driven development is also recommended in order to instill good coding practices.The CS fundamentals are function, variable, and type. In addition, the control flow of execution necessitates control structures, such as selection and iteration. These structures are positioned in the learning trajectories of the corresponding mathematics syllabus areas of algebra, arithmetic, or geometry. During the transition phase to the new syllabus, in-service mathematics teachers can utilize their prior mathematical knowledge to reap the benefits of ‘near transfer’. Successful transfer requires close conceptual analogies, such as those that exist between algebra and the functional programming paradigm.However, the integration with mathematics and the utilization of the functional paradigm are far from being the only approaches to teaching computing, and it might turn out that they are perhaps too exclusive. Instead of the grounded mathematics metaphor, computing may be perceived as basic literacy for the 21st century, and as such it could be taught as a separate subject in its own right