Mathematics outside the classroom: examples with pre-service teachers

Abstract

The classroom is only one of the "homes" where education takes place. The use of non-formal teaching contexts, such as the surrounding environment, constitutes an educational context that can promote positive attitudes among students and an additional motivation for the study of mathematics. Teaching should be enriched with challenging tasks, aimed at developing cognitive abilities, such as problem posing and solving, and also encourage creative thinking. Thus, arise the trails, which consist of a sequence of tasks that the students have to solve, along a preplanned route. In this process, teacher education has a fundamental role, providing (future) teachers with the same experiences they are expected to offer their own students. The trails have great potential for all the students who experience them. Thus, we will discuss some of that potential developed in the context of pre-service teacher training.