Formative Context of Robotic-Mathematical Invention: Computational Thinking and Critical Mathematics

Abstract

In this article, we identify and understand the characteristics of a mathematics educational context in which students produce digital games and robotic devices to treat symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Using a qualitative research methodology, we interact with high school students who aim to build an electronic game with a robotic device called Parachute, intended for physiotherapy sessions for patients with Parkinson's. Beyond the walls of the Mathematics classroom, students were encouraged to propose and develop ideas in an instructional environment created for experimentation with digital inventions for the benefit of people. We analyzed data using the theoretical assumptions of computational thinking and critical mathematics. The analytic categories consisted of discussion-analysis of scientific-technological, collaborative-argumentative, and inventive-creative development of technologies. As a result, we identified the following characteristics of the mathematical educational context: formative independence, unpredictability of responses, learning centered on understanding-research-invention, and connection between areas of knowledge. These characteristics originate and develop mutually, dynamically, and idiosyncratically in students' planning, dialogue, and initiative. Moreover, these characteristics foster the exploration of open and unprecedented mathematical problems and decentralize the excessive formalization of the rigor of mathematical objects.

Critical Mathematics; Digital games; Robotics; Mathematical Formation