Description of the Experience
One of the main characteristics of students with difficulties in learning maths is a lack of independence. At the moment in which such students find themselves alone, without a teacher to guide them, they often become incapable of correctly completing the assigned exercises and above all of critical analysis, of understanding the meaning and the theoretical content discussed in the classroom. This suggests the need for a “tutor” who can assist the student to work individually at home and who can facilitate learning and independence in their studies.
To meet this need, and with a view to innovative teaching that is capable of enhancing the set-up of an educational environment directed at the monitoring, personalisation and optimisation of learning, the previous year I involved a second year class in an experiment that required the use, for a period of a year (February 2013 to February 2014), of MyMathLab. This is a digital platform created by the editorial house Pearson for teaching and learning maths, and where the creation of a virtual class enables students, through an organised system of tutoring and online assessment, to practise and consolidate the topics studied in class through appropriate exercises and quizzes selected for them by the teacher. Besides the possibility of assessing and measuring the progress of the class and the individual students on a daily basis, it is possible to adapt these to the students’ different learning styles, personalising the exercises available on the platform and identifying which type of “virtual help” to make available to each. The use of the platform furthermore allows the teacher to easily give the class digital materials created in support of the lessons and to communicate directly with them thanks to a noticeboard. As for my experience with my class, unfortunately not all the students have fully exploited the possibilities and help available through MyMathLab, some because of poor motivation, others because of family issues that have made access to the platform difficult or impossible. Those who engaged with it however have certainly found it beneficial. Even though the commitment was not consistent and constant on everyone’s part, I was able to ascertain that some of the students who were usually in an unmistakable state of difficulty and / or disadvantage during the lessons in class seemed to have found in the platform a tool with which to make headway and to prove their skills.
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