Teacher trainers and their perceptions on the use of ICT in mathematics classes

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze a sample of 27 university professors from Brazil and Spain, trainers of future mathematics teachers in order to apprehend how they perceive the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in their classes. The ideas of John Dewey and Seymour Papert are highlighted, as well as the third version of the UNESCO ICT teaching competencies framework. To build a qualitative approach, a questionnaire was proposed to the teachers, whose responses were analyzed using Discursive Textual Analysis (DTA). The results show that most of the interviewees owned considerable knowledge of the benefits of ICT use in pedagogical practices and identified with the most advanced stages of the framework proposed by UNESCO. However, it was observed that ICT are still predominantly used as auxiliary tools in classes considered traditional, due to several factors such as lack of continuous training and lack of time to keep up with constant technological innovations.