Didattica laboratoriale e costruzione di competenze nell’insegnamento/apprendimento della Matematica

Abstract

The discussion on Laboratory Didactics, as a “new” teaching methodology, has developed in Italy since the early 2000s, just as the Démarche d’Investigation and the Inquiry Based Science Education have become a benchmark for the teaching of scientific disciplines in many countries throughout the world. The role of the laboratory in the scientific setting as well as in education and training goes even further back, and has felt the effects of the epistemological debate on scientific method since the beginning of the 1900s. In recent years, laboratory practices have been institutionally present in the ministerial guidelines for the entire pre-university education cycle, and not just for mathematics and scientific disciplines. In this paper, we draw attention to the fact that, on the one hand, the results of pedagogical, psychological and didactic research contribute to the pertinence of such methodological guidelines, but, at the same time, are difficult to put into practice at all levels of school education. Through a case study on problem solving activities in mathematics, we examine how a “laboratory climate” can contribute to building mathematical skills, and discuss the rigidity of the school system with respect to change and innovation of habitual practices.