Problem solving through play

SUMMARY
In the year 1993, a curricular reform was introduced in Mexican primary schools.
the basic idea that children learn mathematics by solving problems. The
the first years of reform instrumentation show a series of difficulties and effects
among those that stand out: the appropriate complexity of the problems posed; the role
from the spontaneous strategies of resolution or the impossibility of transferring to children the
responsibility for their learning. This conference addresses these issues.

Transposition has its utility, its drawbacks, and its role, even for construction.
of science. It is both inevitable, necessary and, in a certain sense, regrettable. It must
to be placed under surveillance. (Guy Brousseau; 1986; 282-283).

In 1993, a new curriculum was introduced in Mexican primary education.

mathematics. The basic idea of such reform was to promote problem-solving
as a means of school learning. The planners sought to generate new relationships
didactics, new ways of connecting with mathematical knowledge, in short, new
educational processes that - would endow knowledge with a greater
meaning that was achieved at that moment in schools.

Interested in learning how the new curriculum was being incorporated into the classrooms.
I made a series of observations in public schools with a group of collaborators.
different characteristics and also with teachers of various professional profiles. Such
observations began in 1994 and concluded in 1997. The stay in the rooms of
class allowed me to notice several issues. Firstly, that the reform is not a
reform of all but (perhaps) a reform of majorities. Many professors retain their
usual forms of teaching, in which two basic action schemes underlie:

yOne of transmission, based on the demonstration of the concepts and the relationships that
wants to make learn and can be identified with the so-called traditional model: the
the teacher transmits, the student captures;
yAnother that promotes the discovery of knowledge through questioning; is
the teaching that many identify with maieutics and that can also be interpreted in
in its modern form, such as the promotion of 'discovery learning' (cf.
Avila;1999).

The persistence of these forms of teaching is argued by the teachers through

Two basic ideas: that such forms have been effective in practice; or that the benefits of
learning through problem solving does not compensate for the efforts invested in
to boost it.

Now, the action of the teachers who have accepted to a greater or lesser extent that their
students learn by solving problems reveals a series of difficulties and effects
product of the transposition operated, which appear at different stages of the process
established around teaching objects. Next, I analyze some of them.
1. Pose problems that are actually "a problem for the students."

An essential issue of 'learning (and teaching) by solving problems' is that the

problems do not become so easy that children already have a model in advance of
resolution, but not so difficult that they become inaccessible, that is,
do not have the knowledge that allows them to imagine a solution strategy,
build it and put it to the test. This issue, today discursively worn out, in the
facts are difficult to manage. It is often heard, and particularly in
higher grade teachers, assert:

"I have tried to apply the new approach, but my students cannot solve the"
problems that I present to them if I don't tell them how to do it. Maybe it's because they come
very behind. For now, I will work with them as I usually do so that
they pair up, and once they have paired up, I will present them with problems without telling them
previously how to solve them.

And under such an idea, the teachers return to their usual way of working: they explain and set up
examples, or they question if the assumed option is for children to discover knowledge in
game; then the children do exercises and, finally, solve some problems to
apply the acquired knowledge. And perhaps problems as a means of learning
they never arrive. I think instead of considering that students are incapable of solving
problems because they come "late", the question that arises is the following: Isn't it that the
the problem being posed can be modified, made simpler (without being trivialized)
And can the students solve that one?

To illustrate the relevance of the issue, I will cite two excerpts observed in class; the first
It refers to a first-grade teacher who posed the following problem to her students.
alumnos:

Juanito won 10 toy cars, now he has 15 toy cars. How many did he have before?

The problem generates little interaction, in fact, there is an absence of responses: "Why
nobody has an opinion?" says the teacher; in random responses: "Twenty-five!", "Fifteen!", "Three!",
"Thirty!" the children say; in dispersion, disinterest: playing with the abacus, chatting, frank.
Disorder. The teacher calls for order, asks questions of another style: "Why 25?", but neither
still gets a response.

It is not surprising that this has happened. Various studies repeat the result: the
problems of the form x + b = c - even with numbers that lend themselves to mental calculation - therefore
In general, they are not accessible to 6-year-old children. Finally, a child responds appropriately:
"Five!" The teacher feels relief, but the others still do not understand. The difficulty
excessive of the problem - which could have been reduced if it had corresponded to the form
a + x = c - it did not allow for establishing but a scarce connection with the object of teaching.
The limitation, then, came from the situation, not from the students.
My second example is that of a fifth-grade teacher who, after having drawn
A circle on the board, starts the class by throwing the following question to the group:

Mto: How would we calculate the perimeter of the circle?

Child: With the protractor?
Weather: I don't want to measure in degrees but in centimeters, how would we do it to
to measure?
Children: (do not respond)
Mto: There is a first problem I encounter when measuring, what will it be?
Child: What is round? (cautious)
Yes, if I had a curved meter, I could measure it, but that's not the case, so...
How do we measure it?
(silence again)
Mto: How do we measure it, does anyone have an idea?
Ns: (once again the children do not respond)
Okay, take out your notebook, we put as Title: 'Mathematics'. First
let's get to know some parts of the circle... (and then the class consists of dictating
and note certain information about the circle).

It can be seen, the measurement of the circumference is not a trivial matter for children. And as
the answer does not come through questioning, the teacher decides to do a dictation
(supported with drawings on the blackboard) to introduce some knowledge about the
circle; the children write down and draw in their notebooks. Then, the teacher continues the class
communicating the knowledge that he wanted to see appear in his students. He does it in the
next way:

y"Try" to measure with a ruler the circumference drawn on the board while saying
to the students: "Even if I want to measure, I won't always be able to do it, right?"
yTake a thread that measures as much as the diameter and says: 'Then, let's measure from
another way
yPlace the thread around the circumference so the children can see that it fits 3.
sometimes "and something more".

When he finishes his demonstration, he says: "[The thread] Fits"... (in a tone that indicates to the children
they must complete the sentence). The children respond in chorus: "Three!" or "Three and a bit!"
And the teacher continues his participation saying: "The Greeks of antiquity
they discovered that: in all circles the diameter fits 3.1416 times (...) that number is
Pi

It can be seen, finally getting to the originally raised question: to measure the
circumference drawn on the blackboard, notice that the diameter fits into it three times "y
something else" and define that relationship as Pi. Only that instead of having arrived through a
children's personal interaction with the situation-problem (as it seemed to be the intention
initially) was reached through the communication of knowledge by the teacher, who
finishes by showing the children what he initially wanted them to build using
its own resources. The original project was completely changed. It was about a
project in which those who would think and propose would be the children, but the class ended at
reverse: the one who thought and proposed was the teacher, those who followed the participation and the
the teacher's thought was the children.

Why was such a radical modification necessary? It was not because the children of that
the group was unable to solve problems, but for other reasons. The first of these
I already pointed it out: the problem posed as an oral question was too difficult. But the
excessive difficulty is nothing but a partial response to why it was necessary to modify the
original project. There is another response to the impossibility of resolving the posed question,
is related to the difficulty that I will comment on below.

2. Provide students with the necessary resources to solve the problems.

Today we know that the possibility of hypothesizing solutions and putting them to the test, of exercising
direct action on the problem situation, justifying ideas to others, are pathways
fertile for learning and intellectual development. In the aforementioned passage, it was deprived
to the students of such possibility, by depriving them of manipulating and experimenting directly
about the situation raised (the only one who could do it was the teacher).

This form of didactic interaction is very common in our classrooms. It is again the
case that we observe when children are asked to calculate the area of a hexagon that is
has drawn on the blackboard. This time the teacher ensures that the children have
the prior knowledge that is deemed necessary to resolve the situation (it requests that
identify the square, the triangle, the rectangle and the formulas to obtain their
respective areas). Then ask:

How do you imagine we can calculate the area of the hexagon? I want you to
think for two minutes, if anyone has the solution raise your hand

From this question, the children begin to offer different answers. The passage is
develop in the way I exemplify below:

No: (in response to the professor's invitation) Side by height over two Mto: Side
By height over two, let's see, this is a side (points to a side of the hexagon)
we said that the height is the perpendicular that goes from the lowest point to the highest point of
the figure, I'm going to place it (draws a triangle inside the hexagon):
 Si multiplico lado por altura sobre dos, estoy calculando el área de esta figura
(indicates the shaded triangle) and these two parts (points to them) remain outside (...)
Na: Side for six
Mto: (...) The perimeter is equal to side times 6 and I did not ask for perimeter.
No: Side by side
Mto: Side by side, something said, let's see what happens if I multiply side by side
(draw the following figure):

The class continues with the same dynamic until a child makes the following suggestion:
Side by height over 2, plus side by height over 2, plus side by height over two [...]
the teacher considers the answer to be good by arguing and justifying it again through
drawings on the board: he does this by dividing the hexagon into six triangles and indicates that the
the sum of those areas would give the total area. Once such justification is made, request to look for another
way to obtain the area (their interest is for the children to use the conventional formula). And
conduct a new exchange for this to happen; once again, it is he who checks
the validity of successive responses.

That is to say, once again the children propose, but it is the teacher who keeps it for himself.
the possibility of directly interacting with the problem-situation and thus testing the validity of
the answers. By not providing children with sufficient conditions to resolve with their
personal resources the task (as the teacher mediates their action on the situation-problem),
a second factor is introduced that limits the success in its execution.
Referring again to the perimeter of the circle: the activity around this content
it would have been successful in the terms of the original project if, in addition to the children
they will have the necessary prior knowledge to imagine a solution, they
they would have had the conditions that allowed them to test their ideas and hypotheses
about how to measure the circumference.

In the case of the hexagon, although the project did not lead to another based on communication
of knowledge, the proposed approach undoubtedly has limitations in the fact that it cannot
personally test the hypotheses and have to formulate them in the public domain
from the class as soon as they are constructed. The eventual error will be verified by
Everyone. It is easy to assume that this will influence the decision not to participate.

En suma, si se les da a los niños la responsabilidad de resolver un problema sin que se les
have shown the way of resolution, it is necessary to give them the opportunity to interact
directly with the situation and sufficient teaching resources to do so. The
the situation must allow them to control the validity of their hypotheses. This in practice, according to
we have seen, it is a significant difficulty for teachers.

3. Select the situations in which it is appropriate to confront and discuss viewpoints and
solutions

According to the new teaching approach, children must participate in the decisions.
in class, they should express their viewpoints, share and confront their ways of
approach and its solutions. But to promote discussion and argumentation in such a way that
Sean beneficial also presents its difficulties. On one hand, it is not necessary to discuss
todo (hemos visto grupos en que el profesor promueve la discusión de cuestiones como:
who will make up each team, how many will the teams be, in what order will they be made
tasks, even if one wants to carry out the task). We have also seen sharing
resolution strategies and problem-solving solutions whose simplicity does not generate strategies
or diverse responses, nor conflicting positions. When this type of 'confronts'
results, the teacher justifies: "These children are not used to discussing, see
usted, no hablan". Los niños, por su parte, consiguen escaso provecho intelectual: si todos
they agree, there will be no interest in repeatedly hearing the same response and a
the only resolution strategy; no learning will be obtained from it.

There are instead opportunities that are useful for evolving knowledge.
of the children. They are the ones that meet the following conditions:

yLet the problem really be a problem for the children;

yThat there is no systematic model for solution;
yThat for the same reason it offers possibilities of different resolution strategies;

Because if all students have a similar solution, obtained with a strategy

similar, there will be very little to discuss. The agreement will have been established from the beginning and
The rest will be extraneous. This issue may seem trivial, but it is not always noticed.
by the teachers.

4. Make explicit the learning achieved through interaction with the situation.
problem

Often, and in accordance with the curricular proposal, teachers suggest games (or
activities) in which mathematical knowledge underlies; for example, games with
cards that lead to managing the principle of grouping and relative value on which it is based
the decimal system. They are games that consist of reaching a certain goal, completing a specific
amount before the peers, using and exchanging chips of relative value
according to certain rules (e.g. 1 red chip = 1; 1 yellow chip = 10 reds; 10 reds = 1
green card). When playing these games, it is assumed that children are learning the
principles of the decimal numbering system. However, often the game focuses on the
the attention of the teacher and that of the children, and the knowledge is not made explicit. The children play,
they win or lose, they have fun... and keep the tokens to pass to the next class. The pattern
it is repeated with other topics such as fractions or measurement.

According to current explanations about learning, one form of knowledge is the

that is generated in direct interaction with the situation; this knowledge is expressed in
way of action or resolution strategy (cf. Broussseau; 1986; Vergnaud; 1977).
Ideally, in games with tokens, a knowledge 'in action' is generated related to the
principles of the decimal system: a red token represents the unit; a yellow token
equivalent to 10 red (represents a group of 10); 10 yellow equal one green
(which represents a group of 100)... But this knowledge "in action" is nothing but a phase
initial in the learning process. Knowledge must be formulated, communicated and
to be institutionalized. However, it is often only at the level of action that it
it promotes knowledge and its explicitness has no place. It is therefore a partial process,
incomplete that is promoted.

To complete the learning cycle, it is necessary, after the implementation of the

activity, that the teacher draws attention to the implicit in actions. Raise
questions like What were we doing?, What were the rules of
game? What does a yellow token represent? What is the value of a green token? could
help to make knowledge explicit, even if it is nascent and provisional. But they are
many of the classes we have seen end without a phase of explicitness or formulation,
much less institutionalization. Of course, there are professors who carry out this
phase. But doing it requires a certain skill and, above all, the teaching awareness of such
necessity. This awareness is not always observed in actions. Perhaps not even in the
curricular materials.

5. Maintain the sense of 'spontaneous' strategies in the learning process

One of the central ideas that underlie learning through problem solving
problems is that students will establish a direct link with the object of
knowledge; that contact will initially translate into the development of
personal resolution strategies. Following this idea, the new programs and texts
they suggest certain sequences for the approach to each of the contents in which
at first, the children will respond to the situation posed by generating their own
resolution strategies. For example, in the sequence for teaching division initially
situations are included where distributing objects one by one (or n by n) is promoted;
Then, the use of other personal procedures is promoted, such as the
multiplication, until reaching the use of the conventional procedure for division (cf. Avila and
Balbuena coords; 1993; SEP; 1994.

In a classroom where the group teacher had promoted learning of the

division according to the new proposal, the children had solved the following problem:

We have 30 bottle caps, I am going to share them among 5 children, how many bottle caps will each child get?
Will they touch each child?

Most had found the solution by writing down the division 5/30 or multiplying 5 x 6.
But surely the teacher found interesting (or worthy of showing to the observer) the
strategy of a child who distributes graphically, because he tells the rest of the group:
Look how beautiful the way he solved it, his companion
showing the drawing with some insistence. In the following problems that the teacher dictates,
and they are very similar to the previous one, this strategy is used by a significant number
as children, probably for the majority.

Of course, the children did not use one-to-one distribution out of an intellectual need,
as the only resource they had to reach the solution. They used it for other
reasons: because they generally seek to please their teachers; their condition of
students are required to (cf. Brousseau; 1986; Sarrazy; 1995; Avila; 1999). Most of the
children in this group had more advanced intellectual and technical resources to
solve division problems (some already handled the procedure)
conventional) but the interest in pleasing their teacher led them to use drawing
to solve the problems. It was the teacher who, probably without realizing it, guided the
use of such strategy.

I didn't see it, but I was told about a teacher who, in her class, asked the children
solve problems with three different strategies. Surely there will be circumstances in
the request may be valid, but I don’t think it will always be this way. There is a
contradiction and an unforeseen effect in the curricular proposal: to force children to
use "spontaneous" strategies. Perhaps this is understandable because sometimes
the solutions proposed by children are very interesting, even surprising, and perhaps because
so that teachers want to know more about what their students can do. But if they do not
act with caution, the meaning that spontaneous strategies have can be distorted in
the learning process that is advocated today.

This is one of the effects of transposition of a curriculum organized through the

problem solving: turning into a teaching object and even into an obligation a
embedded resource to officially accommodate personal forms of relationship with the
mathematical knowledge. In this I seem to see a variant of the effect that Guy Brousseau
denominated metacognitive sliding and whose most striking example is found in the
reform of the seventies, (particularly in the use of Venn diagrams). This
the effect consists of transforming the introduced resources into teaching objects
initially as support to achieve learning (cf. Brousseau; 1986).

Finally, I will talk about a matter that I certainly should have mentioned earlier.
principle, since it is an indispensable condition for the incorporation of the new approach in the
classes, but I have left it until the end because, it seems to me, it is of a different order of complexity
than those previously exposed.

6. Accept to 'return' to the students the responsibility for their learning

Many teachers who had spent their whole lives working with the idea that achieving that the
children pay attention, explain well, give clear examples and then exercise situations
and sufficient application are traits that describe the action of the 'good teacher', they are almost
it is impossible to accept that students can learn without being transmitted the
knowledge has been passed down for a lifetime! It is hard to accept that students of
flesh and bone, those who are in front of you at the start of the class are capable of solving the
problems that are presented to them without me telling them how to do it and without it being necessary
control "step by step" their intellectual processes. Countless episodes refer us to
this, also countless statements. I will refer here only by way of example, the moment
in which a first-grade teacher tells her students:

Let's open your book to this page (the sample)

The children open their book to the lesson 'Sunday in the Zocalo'
Mta: You are going to tell the things that are in the drawing, while I am going to go out a
just a moment.
The first question of the text is: 'How many people wear hats?' The children
they talk about the text to get the answer, a murmur arises
When the teacher returns, she says something like: 'Let's see your answers.'
Let's see, Omar, how many people are wearing hats?
Omar: Five
(some children wrote four and others five in their book)
Mta: Let's write the number five (write the number five on the board)
Now, if I ask you how many people have a hat (draw on the board the
little hat
No: Teacher, that one has already been told!
Mta: No, no, no, don't you all know what a hat is and what it is a
little cap?
Yes (various) I do/I do
Mta: Let’s see, how many people are wearing hats?
Na: One
Others shout again: Five!, Six!
Mta: They don't hear what I'm saying [...] I didn't say hat and cap, I said
How many people have a hat, a hat, know the hat?
Yes
Mta: So, why did they mention the cop with the hat?
disapproval
No: I didn't tell it.
 No: Neither do I
No: Me neither
Mta: Let's see, let's see, let's count [all together], let's lock up the
person on the left who is hugging the lady (...) Now, look for
the person who is dressed in black... (...) the one who is next to a lady who
she has a skirt with polka dots (...) now one with a checkered shirt (...) now...
And in this way, under strict direction from the teacher, who does not allow for
the children 'count on their own', the rest of the lesson is solved.

La profesora, ante dos respuestas distintas a una pregunta - diversidad que por cierto parece
take her by surprise - backtrack on her initial decision to let the children count 'alone'.
She prefers to take control of the activity and does so promptly, could it be because she thinks
that if you let the children free, each one will get different answers and that those
the answers will not be correct? It seems to me that yes, that is why it regains control of the
learning time and responses. But it would be worth asking, is this gain in
Would control compensate for what was lost in terms of learning? Learnings such as:

ythe development of personal counting strategies;

ythe construction of means to control the validity of the results.
ythe construction of arguments to justify to others the obtained responses

Indeed, this would have been an excellent opportunity to discuss why it had
obtained 4 or 5 as a response, even in terms of learning Spanish, since in the
dictionary, the term hat defines a 'piece of clothing that serves to cover the
"head". According to this definition, the children who counted the police officer's cap were in a
Correct. It would have been educationally productive to work with this dual interpretation.
But in the teacher, the desire to control learning linearly prevailed. And for me, it
It seems that when regaining control, the loss was greater than the gain. For this reason, I propose.
what other necessary issue in the teacher's performance (according to the new proposals) is
to have confidence in the students and translate that confidence into spaces of freedom. It is
it is necessary to accept that not for making the control of events in class more punctual
better learning outcomes will be achieved.

But the issue is not trivial. I previously said that accepting to 'return' to the students the
the responsibility of learning seemed to me to be of a different level of complexity than that of the
previously analyzed issues. I now return to this idea by recovering the notion of obstacle in the
the sense of Bachellard (1979) and transferred by Brousseau to the field of didactics (cf.
Brousseau; 1983). Under a form of teaching action that does not allow students to act.
out of control nor enjoy wide spaces of freedom, "it suggests not only a lack of
skill, a disability, is also hinted at (and above all) a way of knowing and of
to think. It is a way of acting linked to a characteristic, coherent conception that has
successful in a field of action: in this case, that of teaching. It is, finally, a
obstacle that prevents seeing in another way, that generates persistent behaviors, that in the case
what occupies us refers to the realm of knowledge and beliefs." It is thus, as I said,
a matter distinct from difficulty whose scope is limited to technique and skill. It is
therefore a basic issue to overcome as a condition for the possibility of teaching
through problem solving.

What I have presented here seeks to contribute to identifying some difficulties in the
instrumentation of the new approach to teaching mathematics, also some
effects that were surely not anticipated at the time of their incorporation. Of course, what
it happens in schools does not end with what I have noted here, but I have hope that
that is useful for considering some aspects of the teaching of mathematics according to the
new winds, regardless of the school level in question.
 Conflict resolution games
They are games that present conflict situations, or that use some aspect
related to these. Some emphasize the analysis of conflictive situations, others
in the communication problems in the conflict, in the power/submission relationships, in the
awareness of the perspective of others. etc. They contribute to individuals and to the group.
elements to learn to face conflicts in a creative way.

Motivation

DEFINITION

From a circle, volunteers must present themselves to position themselves inside it and a discussion takes place.
the motivations.

OBJETIVOS

Demonstrate how people, even if they act in the same way, may be starting out
of different motivations and understanding seemingly incomprehensible attitudes.

PARTICIPANTS

Fewer than 30 people.

DEVELOPMENT

It is requested that five or six people voluntarily come to the center of the circle. Then
They must tell the group the reasons why they have volunteered. The rest
from the listening group. Next, those who have not volunteered are asked
that they publicly expose their reasons for not doing so.

This exercise can be done another way: those who have not presented themselves are asked.
voluntarily say why they believe the others have presented themselves and vice versa

EVALUATION

y motivations are very personal

y No one owns the truth, but everyone can possess a part of it.
y we must be less judges and more human
y Many times we project our own motivations onto others.
The squadron

DEFINITION

Each team must make a flying ship using two sheets of paper (A4 size) and
It has to make it fly and cover a distance to reach a target.

OBJECTIVES

Creativity, teamwork, and communication.

PARTICIPANTS

Group, class, 'from 10 years old in groups of 3 to 5 people'

MATERIAL

yBond paper sheets, A4 size

yA ring with a diameter of fifty centimeters

Departure Instructions

yEach group is going to make a flying ship.

yThis ship has to cover a distance of 5 meters.
yHe must pass through a ring 50 cm in diameter.
yYou have three attempts to achieve your goal.

DEVELOPMENT

Groups are formed (3 to 5 people)

The papers are given to them.

They are given the instructions.

Warning about the request for an additional sheet (Adults)

The group concludes the test when they manage to make their ship fly and pass through the ring (they have up to 3
attempts

The attempts of each group cannot be consecutive (in order to encourage participation
of all

The game ends once all groups have completed the challenge.

EVALUATION
The moderator should applaud the successes.

Congratulations to the whole squad for achieving the goal.

The team must applaud the successes.

Congratulations to the first group that achieved the goal.

The moderator will ask openly: Request opinions

yWhat can we learn from this game?

yWhat has been the hardest moment?
yWhat does it feel like to see other groups moving on while our group stays behind?
yWhat do we feel now that we have all accomplished the goal?

The moderator should make a reflective closing about what has led each group to reach.
its objective: in terms of communication, teamwork, and above all motivation.

VARIANTS

Adult variant (Negotiation): If they ruin any sheet of paper, another one will be given to them.
new, but also an additional sheet, which must necessarily be included in your design
It is the cost of ruining a sheet.

Steal the flag

DEFINITION

The group is divided into police and thieves, and the goal is for the thieves to steal the flag and
they take to the field with the opposition of the police.

OBJECTIVES

Develop the ability to make team decisions. Foster the need to cooperate.

PARTICIPANTS

Group, class, "from 8 years old."

MATERIAL

Something that simulates a flag, for example, a pole fixed with a cone or a collector.
Departure Instructions

The thieves have an invulnerable one who can also hunt police. The hunted are placed
with arms crossed until being saved. The opponent is caught just by touching them.

DEVELOPMENT

The game begins with the creation of two antagonist groups (police and thieves) and the
election of the immune. The flag is placed inside the police field. The game
ends when:

yThe flag is stolen and taken to the thieves' camp.

yWhen a thief is caught with the flag

In the last case, if there is doubt whether I left the flag before being touched, the benefit is
for the attacker.

If a thief leaves the flag and it falls to the ground, he is caught; it must be picked up by him.

EVALUATION

How was the group organized? What kind of strategy was followed?

VARIANTS

yVery large group.

y More than one immune.
yTwo flags.
yIt is saved in different ways

Spider web

DEFINITION

It is about all the participants going through a 'web' without touching it.

OBJECTIVES

Develop the collective capacity to make decisions and resolve conflicts. Encourage the
need to cooperate. Develop group trust

PARTICIPANTS
Group, class, "from 12 years old.

MATERIAL

Rope and a space that has two posts, two trees, "between which one can build.
the spider web.

Departure Instructions

Using the rope, build a spider web between two sides (trees, posts, etc.) of about two
meters wide. It is advisable to make it leaving many spaces of various sizes, the most
large over one meter.

DEVELOPMENT

The group must pass through the web without touching it, meaning without touching the strings. We can
present to the group that they are trapped in a cave or a prison and that the only exit is to
through this electrified fence. We need to find a solution to get the first ones across with the
help from others; then one by one they come out until reaching the new problem of
the last ones.

EVALUATION

How were decisions made? What kind of strategy was followed?

 DefinitionofReading

Define reading
It is a cognitive process through which we construct meaning or sense of a text by relating the
information from the text that we already know.

What skills are needed to understand a text? Explain them.

A) Simple identification skill. This skill depends on the knowledge of the language, especially of the
written language.
B) Higher-level cognitive skill. This skill helps us interpret texts using our
general knowledge, specific knowledge of the subject and of the ways in which discourse is organized
written.
What is context?
It is everything that surrounds the word, phrase, or passage that we read. What precedes or follows an unknown word.

can help us predict the meaning of this. Likewise, it can help us better understand a passage.
¿Cuántos tipos de lectura existen? Define cada uno de ellos
Skimming: the reader uses this type of text to get a general idea of the text and understand the topic.
That is spoken. It is a quick and superficial read.
Selective reading: it is a quick reading in which the text is scanned in order to find information.
specific.
What are the typographic aspects that can appear in a text?
The bold and the italics.
What is format?
They are the set of characteristics of a book, newspaper or magazine. It includes the length of the text and the layout.

of the same.
Name 5 variants represented in a text
Author's indication.
Text extension.
Caption or illustration.
Indication of place and date.
Borders and shading.
Menciona 3 ejemplos de funciones comunicativas
Make a recommendation, report news, and request a service.
¿Qué es un índice general y que es un índice temático?
General index: it is a list of subjects contained in a book or magazine.
Thematic index: it is an alphabetical list of subjects contained in a book.
What is the origin of reading?

In ancient times, one might think that the history of reading is the same as that of writing.
but the evolution of graphic supports is decisive in the development of reading.

The first hieroglyphs were designed 5,000 years ago, whereas phonetic alphabets are more
ancient ones are around 3500 years old. The first written works sometimes allowed to have
only a part of the text.

Between the 2nd and 4th centuries, the introduction of parchment allowed for the writing of composed works.
for several long sheets that could be kept together and read consecutively. The book of the
the current era follows this same principle, but the new presentation allows for consultation of its
content in a less linear way, that is, to access a certain passage of the text directly.

Around the 10th century, words were written one after another, without spaces or punctuation:

TALTIPODEESCRITURANOFAVORECIALAIDENTIF
UNLABORED DECIPHERING LETTER BY LETTER

On the other hand, although texts dating back to the 5th century BC attest that in Greece the practice was

silent reading was likely an exceptional practice for centuries. Reading aloud
high was almost systematic. In the Confessions of Saint Augustine of Hippo, his is mentioned

astonishment when he saw Ambroise of Milan reading in silence.

Functions of Reading

Reading has multiple functions, all of them closely related. We read to escape reality,
to carry out an activity, to study, to search for information. In fact, at every moment of our
Life is present in reading. While waiting for the bus, we must read the route, when shopping at the supermarket.

we check the price. In class, we read the teacher's notes, we read the homework, the furtive messages from the
friend (female) that attracts us.

Within the Internet, reading is vital for the cybernaut; obviously, writing is too. If not
we carry out efficient reading within cyberspace we are exposed to making mistakes that will suffer
our computer: malicious codes would turn our computer into a sea of infection. And what to say about
the self-executing programs that a dialog box, seemingly harmless, offers us as a gift and
that are nothing but telephone connections to foreign countries or 'non-holy' places. Dad and Mom would have to

paying costly calls on the telephone bill, apart from the risk of decreasing memory
Ram and hard disk space.

Reading is essential, knowing how we read is wonderful.

I will outline the functions of reading:

We read for pleasure when our goal is purely hedonic, for example when reading; a poem, a
novel or short story, the letter from that loved one who is far away. In this sense, the reading is enjoyable, we

it comforts, we enjoyed it.

But what happens when we buy a digital video player (DVD), a Mini Sound Component or
a computer. And the worst part is... we don't know how to connect it and make it work. Should we call a technician?

specialized to do the work for us? No, it is better to read the instructions to know how
connect it or make it work. This type of reading is called practical application.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Classical conditioning, also called Pavlovian conditioning

condicionamiento respondiente, omodelo Estimulo-Respuesta (E-R), es un tipo de
associative learning that was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov. The most
simple classical conditioning remembers what Aristotle would call the law of
contiguity. Essentially, the philosopher said, "When two things usually happen together, the
"the appearance of one will bring the other to mind." Despite the fact that the law of contiguity is one
of the primordials axioms of classical conditioning theory, the explanation to
the phenomenon given by these theorists differs radically from that presented by Aristotle, since
they place special emphasis on not making any reference to concepts such as 'mind'. That is,
all those concepts that are not measurable, quantifiable, and directly observable. In addition,
it is more accurate to state that more than mere temporal contiguity, it is the relationship of
dependency between the presentation of the first and the second stimulus which provides the
conditions under which conditioning occurs. Pavlov's initial interest was to study
digestive physiology, which he conducted on dogs and earned him a Nobel Prize in 1904. In the
process, designed the scheme of classical conditioning based on his observations:

In -------> Rn
EI -------> RI

Both lines of the diagram show unconditional or unlearned relationships. The

first represents the relationship between a stimulus, which although evokes the typical response of the
species before it (for example, orienting towards the source of a sound), we can consider
as neutral regarding the response we are trying to condition (for example the
salivation). The second line represents the natural, unlearned or unconditional relationship.
between another stimulus (EI = Unconditional or natural stimulus) and the response to it (RI =
Unconditional response). Dogs salivate (UR) naturally in the presence of food.
(EI).

EC -------> RnC
EI -------> RI

However, by virtue of the dependency relationship established between the presentation

of both stimuli, so that one consistently functions as the condition of the
the presence of another may allow another stimulus to also evoke the RI, even if it did not before.
I would do it. For example, the sound of a bell a few seconds before the
presentation of the food: after a few rehearsals, the sound of the bell
would reliably and independently evoke the salivation response, in addition to continuing
evoking the orientation response to sound. The bell now functions as a
conditional stimulus that produces a conditional response. The proof that the
conditioning has been carried out consists of presenting only the conditional stimulus,
without the unconditional stimulus, observing that the conditional response is produced from
consistently, as long as it continues to be presented, even if occasionally,
the presentation of the unconditional stimulus immediately following the conditional stimulus.

EC -------> RnC
The original and most famous example of classical conditioning involved the
salivary conditioning of Pavlov's dogs. During his research on the
physiology of digestion in dogs, Pavlov noted that, instead of simply salivating at
to present them with a serving of powdered meat (an innate response to food that the
called the unconditional response), the dogs began to salivate in the presence of the
laboratory technician who normally fed them. Pavlov called these secretions
psychic. From this observation, he predicted that if a particular stimulus was present
when the dog is given its food portion, then this stimulus will
it would associate with the food and would provoke salivation by itself. In his initial experiment,
Pavlov used a metronome (at 100 beats per minute, although it is popularly believed that
used a bell) to call the dogs to eat, and after several repetitions, the
dogs began to salivate in response to the metronome (device used by musicians)
to mark the rhythm).

Associated phenomena
The persistence of the conditional reflex depends on the concurrent presentation of its
elements. If the EI stops being presented after the EC, the RC will eventually disappear,
phenomenon known as extinction. After this process has been completed,
conditional response could reappear without the elements being presented again
together, what is known as spontaneous recovery. Finally, the response
conditional is no longer presented in front of the conditional stimulus, so regarding this
it works again as a neutral stimulus.

EC -------> No RC
That is to say:
In -------> Rn

The formal properties of stimuli can play an important role in the

classical conditioning process. The CR can occur in the presence of stimuli that
they were not originally EC, but share some characteristics with them. For
for example, if the US is a sound of a bell, the CS could also appear in response to a doorbell,
the tick-tock of a clock or other noises, which is known as stimulus generalization.
The opposite phenomenon, in which the conditional response occurs in response to stimuli
of increasingly specific characteristics is known as discrimination of
stimuli. A classic experiment of this phenomenon describes how some pigeons were
trained to respond to exposure to a certain frequency of sound,
being able to omit the response to minimal variations in this frequency.

An EC can sometimes function as an EI in a conditioning process,

so that a new neutral stimulus can function as a CS (CS2) by associating with a
first EC (EC1):

fI
|
 fC
|
fC kiss

This phenomenon is known as second-order conditioning. Apparently, it

They have documented cases of conditioning up to third order, but they are very difficult.
to achieve and maintain.

Concepts of classical conditioning

Classical conditioning is a stimulus (S) that provokes the response (R)
conditioned by the antecedent stimulus (singular) causes (provokes) the
reflex or involuntary response that occurs in classical conditioning
it begins with a reflex action: An innate and involuntary behavior triggered or
caused by a previous environmental event. For example,
if air is blown in your eye, it blinks. You have no voluntary control and
aware of oneself in a blink and a close as if not.

The specific model for classical conditioning is as follows:

Unconditioned stimulus (US) provokes the response > Unconditioned

a naturally occurring stimulus (without learning) to obtain or produce a
reflexive response
2. Neutral stimulus (NS) ---> does not provoke the response of interest: the stimulus
(sometimes called a guidance stimulus, as it causes a
response of orientation) is a neutral stimulus, as it does not provoke the no
conditioned (or reflexive) response.
3. The neutral stimulus / Orienting (NS) is repeatedly combined
with the unconditioned / Natural stimulus (USA).
4. The NS transforms into a conditioned stimulus (CS), that is, when the
CS presents itself, creates or makes the CR (which is the same
involuntary response like the UR, the name changes because it is
provoked by a different stimulus. This is written CS provokes > CR.
In classical conditioning, new behaviors are not learned. Instead, the
association has been developed (through connection) between NS and the USA to
that the animal / person responds to the events / stimuli (plural) of the
in the same way, it reiterated, after the conditioning, both in the U.S. and the SC
will provoke the same involuntary response (the person / animal learns to
respond reflexively to a new stimulus.

Summary of the concepts:

1. Unconditioned stimulus: a thing that can already be obtained.

response.
2. Unconditioned response: something that is already provoked by a
stimulus.
Unconditional relationship: an already existing stimulus-response relationship.
4. Conditioned stimulus: a new stimulus that we offer to the same.
time to give the age stimulus.
5. Conditioned relationship: the new stimulus-response relationship that we have
created by associating a new stimulus with a response of
age.

There are two main parts. Firstly, we start from an existing relationship.
of stimulus, unconditioned ---> Unconditioned response. Secondly,
by a new thing (Conditioned stimulus) with the relationship that exists, until
that the new has the power to provoke the response of age.