Noticias en español
The graduation ceremony of the Postgraduate Diploma “Learning and Problem Solving in Mathematics in Higher Education”, certified by the aRPa initiative of the Center for Mathematical Modeling (CMM) of the University of Chile, was held in a hybrid format, held from the Hall of Honor of the Central House of the University of Chile, and with parallel transmissions from the Inacap campuses from Arica to Punta Arenas.
The ceremony, for some 80 Inacap teachers, was presided over by the rector of the U. of Chile, Rosa Devés, the rector of Inacap, Lucas Palacios, and the director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Education, Carmen Sotomayor.
“We congratulate you, we thank you and we understand that you are starting to walk, that today you have the tools to work in community. The relationship with young people who live other realities, and therefore have other questions, with a creativity that turns in different ways, as are the students of Inacap, it seems to us that enriches this day (…) From the U. of Chile we always seek to be more diverse than we are. The greatest danger that this University can have is to homogenize and not be from Chile, and you help us to be more from Chile”, said Devés.
Rosa Devés, rector of the Universidad de Chile.
Meanwhile, the rector of Inacap, Lucas Palacios, thanked “the Universidad de Chile for this very fruitful relationship, where we have worked to strengthen the capabilities of our teachers. When a good teacher is identified, what we have to do is to always worry about that teacher, especially in the area of mathematics, because as a country we have many challenges in this area”.
He also took the opportunity to congratulate the Inacap Academic Vice-Rectory team that in 2014 initiated this project. “There is so much we can do to transform our country, especially through our teachers, that is why we want to continue and deepen the relationship we have built with the University of Chile”, remarked Palacios.
Lucas Palacios, rector of Inacap.
The Postgraduate Diploma in “Learning and Problem Solving in Mathematics in Higher Education” of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Education of the University of Chile is aimed at higher education teachers (universities, technical training centers and professional institutes) who teach mathematics. “It demonstrates the commitment of our Institute to this sector of higher education, which is so important for the development of the country and for the social mobility of underprivileged sectors”, said Carmen Sotomayor, director of the institute.
The authority also emphasized the pedagogical innovation that aRPa promotes with its work of development and research on its own practice, contributing on how to do “Problem Solving”, which is prescribed and highlighted as something important in mathematics curricula, but there is not much clarity on how to apply it.
In this sense, the National Prize for Exact Sciences and director of the aRPa initiative, Patricio Felmer, thanked “the presence of the professors in the Hall of Honor, a historic site of the University of Chile, as well as the participation of Rector Devés and Rector Palacios, which symbolizes the relevance of both this alliance and the professors for both institutions”.
Antonio Figueroa, a teacher from the La Granja campus, and Valentina Reiher, a teacher from the Concepción-Talcahuano campus, highlighted Inacap’s support in this path of improvement and also its passion and vocation for Technical Professional Education. They also highlighted how this professional development opportunity, under the wing of aRPa, has transformed their classroom practices, renewing their vocation for pedagogy and mathematics.
Specifically, this diploma is given in a context of collaboration between the Institute for Advanced Studies in Education and Inacap, which has allowed Inacap to have practically all its teachers trained in active learning based on collaborative problem solving, and the aRPa initiative to strengthen its strategies for teacher training, training of aRPa monitors and transfer of knowledge and classroom practices. With this ceremony, more than 220 INACAP teachers from its 28 campuses throughout the country have completed their diploma in problem solving.
About aRPa
ARPA (Activating Problem Solving in the Classroom) is a research and professional development initiative of the University of Chile – as a program of the Center for Advanced Research in Education (CIAE) and the Center for Mathematical Modeling (CMM) – aimed at training teachers of all educational levels in problem solving methodology. It works to provide more and better learning opportunities for children and young people, in order to promote the development of skills and attitudes that will enable them to develop in various fields. Its work is based on the principle that a fair and inclusive education system is directly related to the possibility of a professional training that values teachers’ knowledge and responds to the ethical duty of putting students at the center of their learning processes.
By Javiera Márquez, ARPA Communications.
Posted on Aug 10, 2023 in News
