Playful strategies to develop mental calculation skills in Middle School students.

Abstract

The present research focused on developing playful strategies to improve mental calculation skills in students of the Middle Sublevel of the Jorge Ortiz Dávila school. Applying a mixed approach, surveys were conducted with students and interviews with pedagogy specialists. Results indicated deficiencies in current methodologies and revealed the perceived effectiveness of gamified approaches. Based on the diagnosis, a proposal was developed that includes four specific strategies to develop various mental calculation learning blocks, and these were validated by specialists, who emphasize innovation and feasibility, among other elements. With all this, the need to apply dynamic pedagogical approaches is highlighted due to their potential to improve mathematics teaching.