The ‘Matemática Unila vai à escola’ project and the outreach as foundation of the public university

Abstract

Outreach activities are an essential and mandatory part of undergraduate programs. Furthermore, among the essential experiences that must be provided to prospective teachers is the experience of the school environment. This article reports on the activities of an outreach project conducted by the Federal University of Latin American Integration (UNILA) linked to the Mathematics teacher education program. Its objective is to understand how different teaching and hands-on resources made available during the extension project impacted the training of the participating students. To develop the activities, the Rotation by Stations methodology was adopted, and a script was prepared and organized into seven stations: UNILA, Numbers and Operations, Quantities and Measurements, Geometry, Probability and Statistics, Algebra, and Problem Solving. After the activities were developed in the schools, the prospective teachers were invited to respond to a questionnaire about the learning acquired from their participation in the project. These responses were analyzed using Content Analysis. The analysis of the responses allowed the construction of three categories, namely: Development of Teaching Identity; Pedagogical Relationships and Teaching Practices; and Integration Between Theoretical and Practical Education. We concluded that the project provided future teachers with an opportunity to reflect on pedagogical practice in classroom, using different equipment, resources, and methodological approaches. These experiences are fundamental to the realization of professional decision-making, which was confirmed by some students, who stated they had gained greater clarity regarding the profession they wish to pursue.