El Proyecto Da Vinci CODE y el Pensamiento Computacional en Secundaria

Alicante 2023

Comunicación – Artículo

Abstract – Resumen

The profound changes proposed by the EU and the Spanish education system demand the use of models like project-based learning (PBL), whose characteristics foster the improvement of key competences in students. The PBL model favours the integration of technology and the teaching of mathematics with a STEM approach, including the development of digital competence and of computational thinking (CT). When PBL is combined with strategies like gamification in digital environments, it also allows to increase the interest and motivation of students by generating experiences of flow. Under the paradigm of design research, this study presents a teaching experiment developed in a class of 13-14 year-old students by their mathematics teacher and university researchers. It describes a didactical proposal, designed in the format of a digital adventure, which integrates game techniques in a PBL model. It is aimed at promoting and assessing the development of key competences, computational thinking and intrinsic motivation in students. The data analysis carried out, after its implementation in the classroom, agrees with other studies on the potential of this kind of designs to improve students’ competences and to increase their motivation and interest about mathematical activity. In addition, the study shows that most students reached adequate levels in the dimensions of CT: logical reasoning, algorithm generation, decomposition, generalisation and abstraction.