The first national plan Sumo, which seeks to generate changes in the way children learn this topic is being implemented and built together with educational institutions of all Chile regions.
Promoting significant changes in teaching mathematics is a task that cannot be performed centrally. For this to happen, the regions must take on a prevailing role.
Through a Japanese method tested in different countries – such as Indonesia, Thailand and Mexico – and this is based on problem solving, the first SUMO national plan, the Ministry of Education Initiative and the Mathematical Mathematical Center of the University of Chile (CMMEDU) are involving various educational institutions in the country.
The plan is based on the collection of texts “Sumo First”, which corresponds to an adaptation of Japanese textbooks with your friends: Mathematics for Primary School, developed by Professor Masami Isoda of the University of Tsukuba and Gakko Tosho Co. of Valparaíso.
These texts encourage students to learn mathematics about and for themselves, with a focus on solving problems and developing mathematical thinking. In addition to distribution of texts, an artificial intelligence assistant for the teacher was developed, and a national support and training program through a network of associates. In this way, it seeks to become a regional plan, which includes the problems that teachers experience in their territories.
“Sumo first proposes a coherent collection of textbooks for 1 to 6 Basic. Promotes students to have an active role in their teaching and organize the content so that students are prepared to learn. To accompany their implementation, we are working with a major act of actors from all regions of the country,” says Salome Martínez, director and researcher.
This network includes six local public education services (SLEP) -IQUique, Licanbur, Puerto Cordillera, Maule Costa, Punilla Cordillera and Valdivia – already thirteen universities: Catholic University of Blessed Conceptuality, University of Tarapacá, Pontical University of Valparaíso, University of Lagoso) University of Magallane and University of Chile.
In this way, it is expected to affect about 30,000 teachers in 16 regions. The SUMO national plan first includes the distribution of 3.2 million textbooks, which is the benefit of more than 1,350,000 students from 1 to 6 foundations of public and subsidized institutions.
At Universidad Australia De Kili, an institution that provides high training courses first in the Los Lagos and Aysén regions, appreciate the local importance of the process. “There were other experiences that covered much larger territorial areas, but the realities of each region are very different. On this occasion we have been able to establish a greater connection with teachers and get to know their educational reality better,” says Sandra Burgos, Universidad Australia, Puerto Montt’s headquarters.
Prisoners highlight the interest that Sumo first arouses among teachers: “Especially in the most isolated regions, human contact is essential. The fact that all workshops are personally held is something that weighs a lot here. It helps teachers perceive the benefit of methodology more directly,” he says.
A similar assessment has at the University of Tarapacá, in the region of the same name. “It is extremely important for us to consider in this plan for the simple fact that we live in an extreme area, where everything is always late or packaged by Santiago. In this program we were invited to be part of its construction, along with professors of the region,” says álvaro Cortinez, Dean Faculty of University of Tarapac.
This territorial work also reports benefits for global improvement of the plan: “When you do this by force, regions in a national stretch program accumulate more perspectives. On the one hand, Sumo first gives us a look at how to improve mathematics teaching and on the other, we contribute to our regional vision, with our specific problems.
For Carlos Lüders, Pro -Rector of the Catholic University of TEMUCO – an institution that is also part of the first national SUMO Plan – Teacher training in this methodology is also an opportunity for professors to plan on how to integrate the interculture present in the classes of mathematics.
“For us as a university that forms lecturers who will later get into the regional educational reality, it was very important to have a methodological tool that can take care of that multicultural characteristic, allowing teachers to include real problems and examples, close to their students. Because in order to achieve important learning, in every field, it is necessary to understand this complexity,” he says.
For her part, Daniela Rojas, a professional modeling center at the University of Chile and the national coordinator of the first Sumo plan, points out that it is the first time an educational plan has been articulated from its base with so many regional actors, which also raises a challenge for mathematics teachers using the method.
“Through cooperative work with this network of educational institutions, we hope that the Sumo National Plan will first be consolidated in time, allowing teachers and beginner training students, to have an effective tool to promote the teaching of this discipline. This plan is, in short, a joint effort to improve mathematics teaching from the Class Class,”
