What was the initial inspiration to create ProFuturo Mathematics and how did you identify the need to strengthen mathematics teaching in vulnerable environments?
iteNlearning was founded 25 years ago with the goal of ensuring that everyone had the same opportunities, regardless of the school they attended, the place they were born, or the resources they had. For this reason, we started as an R&D laboratory, where a multidisciplinary team of pedagogues, neuroscientists, technology experts, teachers, and other professionals set out to solve a big question: How can we provide educational systems with tools and knowledge to ensure that each student has the same opportunities to reach their full potential, considering their individual needs throughout the process?
When iteNlearning got to know ProFuturo and its mission to improve people’s quality of life through education, we recognized that their goals aligned perfectly with ours. From this shared vision, the ProFuturo Mathematics project was born, designed specifically for this organization and adapted to the needs of the environments and contexts in which it works.
How does ProFuturo Mathematics ensure that its content and methods are adapted to contexts with limited resources and diverse educational needs?
ProFuturo Mathematics is a technological tool specifically adapted to the needs of its implementation environments, considering cultural, legislative, and technological aspects. Its adaptability is based on what we call “expert systems” (AI technologies for causalities) that facilitate the adaptation of learning on three levels:
- A first level (in real-time), which responds immediately to the student’s interactions, reinforcing or adjusting content.
- A second level (in subsequent work sessions), which organizes learning according to memory curves and individual learnings, and organizes sessions into specific phases (e.g., new content, content to reinforce, content to consolidate…).
- A third level of adjusting learning objectives, which modifies content based on each student’s neurodevelopment progress.
Its technology is based on a model specifically designed for teaching and learning, considering three fundamental concepts: teaching-learning processes are dynamic, learning varies according to each student, and providing information alone is not enough to build knowledge. This approach allows us to understand the unique learning process of each student and plan according to their personal characteristics, achieving personalized and equitable education.
Many students in vulnerable contexts face psychological barriers to learning mathematics, such as fear of making mistakes or perceiving difficulty. How does ProFuturo Mathematics address these barriers to motivate students?
It has been shown that personality factors can influence student performance and the development process, especially in teaching-learning mathematics. These types of barriers, such as math anxiety, tend to increase in vulnerable environments or among girls.
ProFuturo Mathematics, although focusing on the development of so-called general intelligence factors, i.e., competencies and skills related to the development of cognitive processes and associated cognitive functions, also considers that learning is affected by the students’ ability to regulate their cognitive, perceptive, and emotional capacities. That is, their resilience, their ability to cope with frustration, their self-perception, or their ability to reflect on their own learning process.
For this reason, the conceptualization and design of ProFuturo Mathematics are aimed at promoting the reflective, ethical, and positive use of technology. How is this achieved?
- Through error treatment systems that invite students to reflect on their own work and understand how to improve.
- Via reinforcement systems upon correct answers that help students understand their progress.
- Through metacognition processes that aim for each student to become aware of their own work and effort, aiming to achieve a better self-perception of themselves and their progress.
- Through gamified symbols that encourage students to identify their cognitive style, promoting more reflective behavior.
Teacher training is key to effective teaching. What type of training do teachers who use ProFuturo Mathematics receive, and what impact has it had on their daily practice?
ProFuturo Mathematics, like all the projects deployed by iteNlearning, is designed following the change theory methodology. This means that from the outset, the needs of the change agents involved (teachers, analysts, educational leaders, specialists, etc.) are considered. Therefore, our team always develops specific training materials and resources for the teachers and professionals involved in each project, ensuring optimal knowledge transfer and usage, and updating this knowledge at key moments when deemed necessary.
Furthermore, it is important to highlight that the design of the teacher’s desk and profile was conceived at the time, following the “Plan, Manage, Analyze” model. This model was chosen because it has proven to have the greatest positive effect size (empirical evidence), both in its use and in learning processes. Thus, even without exhaustive training, the design of the tool is meant to allow teachers, regardless of their digital competence level, to use it intuitively.
Technology is a powerful tool, but it also presents challenges in disadvantaged contexts. How do you manage to balance the use of digital resources with the lack of connectivity in many vulnerable schools?
At iteNlearning, we believe that while the rise of technologies and the development of digital resources in education has been positive, it also carries the risk of increasing digital divides, especially in environments with limited access to resources and connectivity. For this reason, our approach does not assume that one solution will have the same results and impact in different environments; instead, it is based on understanding each context to design the most suitable solution for its needs.
In this case, and given the environments we wanted to reach with ProFuturo Mathematics, both teams identified the need to create a tool that could be used in more vulnerable places with less developed technological infrastructures. This led to the process our team started to understand how to deploy the tool in an offline version (off-the-grid), developed to operate through a local network without losing quality or functionalities. This resulted in an AI-powered tool capable of collecting data and information in real-time about its users, functioning autonomously without relying on an external internet connection or a cloud-based server.
The goal of this deployment of ProFuturo Mathematics is to reach a greater number of environments and people, aiming to break educational gaps by bridging digital divides.
According to the first results and evaluations, what have been the most significant achievements of ProFuturo Mathematics in terms of improving learning and closing educational gaps?
The successful deployment of ProFuturo Mathematics in multiple environments and cultures is an achievement in itself. Thousands of students and teachers worldwide use the tool daily, which fills us with pride.
The second achievement for us is having contributed to offering better opportunities to people worldwide in collaboration with ProFuturo, a milestone that we never would have reached at this level without them.
That being said, and based on DataLAB ProFuturo data, we have observed that, especially in environments where the tool has been used for a longer period, there is an improvement in the development of specific cognitive processes in mathematical language, both from a legislative and neurodevelopment perspective. We began to notice that some student groups showed significant improvements from one term to the next, and we also observed progress in the personality factors we mentioned earlier, such as improved self-perception or a tendency towards more reflective and efficient behaviors.
Looking to the future, what are the next steps to expand and strengthen ProFuturo Mathematics in the most vulnerable environments?
As already mentioned, ProFuturo Mathematics has been designed and deployed following the Theory of Change methodology. This means it is in a constant process of monitoring, analysis, and evaluation (MEL), which ensures continuous optimization and improvement.
Therefore, the next steps will be determined by what we identify as the needs of each environment and which aspects need to be optimized to better adapt to the real needs of the people and users deploying and using ProFuturo Mathematics in the field, as well as potential new users and environments. This includes the needs and goals of the ProFuturo team.
That said, at iteNlearning, we consider it essential that this deployment, so massive and diverse in different countries and cultures, along with the collection and analysis of data at the micro (through the tool) and macro (via DataLAB ProFuturo) levels, generates a great flow of information based on evidence-based models. This information can be key in preparing reports that facilitate informed decision-making, validating new knowledge, influencing educational policy creation, or even better understanding what people need to teach and learn in different environments.
