The analysis of teacher–student interaction when jointly solving routine problems in the primary education mathematics classroom has revealed that there is scarce reasoning and little participation on students’ part. To analyze whether this fact is due to the routine nature of the problems, a sample of teachers who solved, together with their students, a routine problem involving three questions with different cognitive difficulty levels (task 1) was analyzed, describing on which part of the problem-solving process (selection of information or reasoning) they focused their interaction. Results showed that they barely focused the interaction on reasoning, and participation of students was scarce, regardless of the cognitive difficulty of the question to be answered. To check whether these results could be due to the routine nature of the problem, a nonroutine problem (task 2) was solved by the same sample of teachers and students. The results revealed an increase in both reasoning and participation of students in processes that required complex reasoning. This being so, the main conclusion of the present study is that including nonroutine problem solving in the primary education classroom as a challenging task is a reasonable way to increase students’ ability to use their own reasoning to solve problems, and to promote greater teacher–student collaboration. These two aspects are relevant for students to become creative, critical, and reflective citizens.

Teachers should not only be regarded as professionals with a large amount of knowledge that they must transmit but are also expected to fulfil other functions and possess other qualities to overcome the teaching challenge. This paper is aimed at designing and validating an instrument to identify preservice teachers’ perceptions about the competencies and capabilities that a good teacher should have. The study sample is made up of 230 university students who are in their teaching training practises and internships in schools. According to the consulted literature, we elaborated a questionnaire composed of 23 items that are subdivided into four dimensions: personal qualities, training, pedagogical aptitude, and interaction. We analysed reliability (Cronbach’s alpha value was 0.924, and, by dimensions, all values were higher than 0.75; the Orion accuracy coefficients by dimensions were all higher than 0.88) and construct validity, obtaining a good quality of the items (with factor loadings above 0.50), after eliminating one of them. We also obtained a high correlation between dimensions; the lowest value is 0.87. We have therefore achieved a final instrument made up of 22 items that helps identify the set of qualities that a good teacher must have and can serve as a guide for the design and planning of their initial and ongoing training.

Análisis de la interacción de maestros cuando resuelven problemas realistas conjuntamente con sus alumnos en aulas de primaria, teniendo en cuenta su experiencia docente

The debate on the adequacy of a continuous or non-continuous school day model in Spain is still a burning topic. This paper presents analyses by 250 retired primary teachers on the types of school day, taking account factors such as student performance, family organization, their repercussion on students’ sleeping hours and the training of both teachers and students. The results show that most teachers support the idea of a continuous school-day system as it makes more time available. However, the impact on academic performance, student concentration and fatigue is a variable which may be used to support either school-day system.

Esta investigación tiene como objetivo comprobar si las prácticas escolares de la escuela del nacionalcatolicismo español condicionaron la construcción de la identidad de género de niñas y mujeres, así como el modelo femenino, de la época. Para ello, se llevó a cabo un análisis cualitativo y cuantitativo de 275 cuadernos escolares de dicho período. El estudio cualitativo abordó el análisis de contenido en torno a cinco variables de estudio, apoyado en un estudio cuantitativo por conglomerados para contrastar los resultados cualitativos. Los resultados revelan que el sistema educativo condicionó el modelo femenino. Las expectativas limitadas, la educación centrada en el hogar y la obediencia perpetuaron la desigualdad de género, con repercusiones observables en la actualidad.

Primary school textbooks can enhance the acquisition of arithmetic word problem solving skills by offering diverse problems based on their semantic-mathematical structure with targeted reasoning aids, including schematics highlighting their mathematical structure. While certain countries, such as the USA and Singapore, have made progress in improving the problems and aids found in their textbooks through the use of specific theoretical-methodological approaches, textbooks from other countries, such as Spain, have included a very limited variety of problems, with hardly any aids to reasoning. Recently, however, two of the most widely used Spanish publishers have released textbooks that adhere to these theoretical-methodological approaches. To assess whether these textbooks progressed past their predecessors in relevant aspects related to the resolution of arithmetic word problems, we conducted an analysis of the quantity of problems and their variety in terms of semantic-mathematical structure and level of difficulty, as well as the inclusion of schematic representations of their mathematical structure. The study demonstrated improvements among textbooks when publishers adopted a theoretical framework, suggesting that a reference framework could enhance textbook design. This is particularly relevant in countries such as Spain, where there are no applicable standards or official curricula for designing textbooks related to solving arithmetic word problems.