Inter-American Development Bank
facebook
twitter
youtube
linkedin
instagram
Abierto al públicoBeyond BordersCaribbean Development TrendsCiudades SosteniblesEnergía para el FuturoEnfoque EducaciónFactor TrabajoGente SaludableGestión fiscalGobernarteIdeas MatterIdeas que CuentanIdeaçãoImpactoIndustrias CreativasLa Maleta AbiertaMoviliblogMás Allá de las FronterasNegocios SosteniblesPrimeros PasosPuntos sobre la iSeguridad CiudadanaSostenibilidadVolvamos a la fuente¿Y si hablamos de igualdad?Home
Citizen Security and Justice Creative Industries Development Effectiveness Early Childhood Development Education Energy Envirnment. Climate Change and Safeguards Fiscal policy and management Gender and Diversity Health Labor and pensions Open Knowledge Public management Science, Technology and Innovation  Trade and Regional Integration Urban Development and Housing Water and Sanitation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Ideas Matter

  • HOME
  • CATEGORIES
    • Behavioral Economics
    • Environment and Climate Change
    • Macroeconomics and Finance
    • Microeconomics and Competitiveness
    • Politics and Institutions
    • Social Issues
  • Authors
  • Spanish
aprendizaje matematica tecnologia America Latina Caribe COVID-19-min

Boosting Math Education with Technology during the Pandemic and After

September 24, 2020 by Elena Arias Ortiz - Julián Cristia - Santiago Cueto Leave a Comment


Education in Latin America and the Caribbean is facing an unprecedented crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic has forced governments to close schools in the vast majority of countries, forcing study to take place at home partly through computers and other devices. But many teachers are still unprepared to use technology effectively in the learning process. And there are long standing problems in learning, especially in math, where 65% of students fail to reach a minimum standard according to data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), 41 percentage points above the figure in OECD countries.

The Covid-19 crisis could significantly hurt students’ earning potential, while closing them off from a technological world where math is foundational. It could also significantly impede the region’s long-term growth prospects.

As revealed in a recently released IDB book, however, there are solutions in computer-assisted study that can help teachers adjust to the pandemic and increase students’ motivation, critical thinking, and learning. There are ways to take advantage of the comparative advantages of technology to boost the region’s human capital.

Learning Mathematics in the 21st Century: Adding Technology to the Equation

An Essential Guide to Math Learning

The book, Learning Math in the 21st Century, combines the expertise of psychologists, educators, and computer engineers from Latin America as well as from the United States. It seeks to provide a guide to governments and educators in the region that can help them use technology in math education more effectively and catch up with the digital age.

There are many reasons to focus on math, specifically. Math is key to growing areas of the economy, including computer programming and data analysis. Successful teaching methods can easily be replicated across the region. And math learning readily lends itself to computer-assistance, given the importance of visualization and automatic and immediate feedback in the process of imparting math concepts and skills.

Unfortunately, math learning in the region today is still dominated by outmoded ways of teaching. The typical math class in Latin America and the Caribbean is not a dynamic space. Instead, it is one where teachers emphasize formulas and memorization, rather than concepts and real-world problems. Exercises are ill adapted to the different levels of ability within a classroom. Feedback from teachers is sporadic and late, and there is little collaboration between students in the effort to learn better. All this leads to a feeling among many students that math is dry and boring and impedes acquisition of one of the most important skills for success in the 21st century.

The Promise of New Technology in Education

Computer-assisted learning can correct for many of these weaknesses. Good software allows for everything from personalized instruction, where students follow their individual learning trajectory, to providing appropriate content to different groups of students. It can offer immediate feedback, not only as to whether an answer is right or wrong, but on the ways that a student has understood or failed to understand a concept. And it can motivate students through gamification, the use of games and competitions to stimulate learning.

An example of this is the ConectaIdeas experience in Chile where students combine twice-weekly, 90-minute math sessions in a computer lab with math tournaments between classrooms from different schools. Kids see on their computers a graph displaying their progress relative to other members of the class and to other schools. In the lead up to the tournaments, they help each other with math problems and train enthusiastically as a group, motivated to learn by the thrill of competition and shared triumph. The results are impressive. Students at 24 low-income primary schools in Santiago who participated in a 2017 experiment involving ConectaIdeas improved their math scores on Chile’s national standardized exams by an average of 50% compared to a control group, many times the gains from the most frequently discussed types of school reform, like lengthening the school day and reducing class size.

The Need for Better Teacher Training

Technology, of course, is not a panacea. It depends on well-trained teachers who are essential in guiding and motivating children in the new technologies and will always be the key actors in education. But for teachers to play that critical role, governments will have to dispense with mass teacher training courses, which tend to be theoretical, and adopt more practical ones that are tailored to an individual teacher’s grade and type of student. Such programs, as discussed in Learning Math in the 21st Century, could be far more cost-effective in helping teachers use the new technologies to provide feedback, and in deepening students’ conceptual understanding and motivation.

It is time to make the promise of technology in learning math a reality. That has been true for a long time, but it can’t wait any longer. The Covid-19 crisis, with its distance-learning and digital demands, has made the need for a revolution in math education essential, a revolution that can yield huge, long-term gains long after the pandemic has passed and students return to school.


Filed Under: Social Issues Tagged With: #COVID-19, #education, #technology

Elena Arias Ortiz

Elena Arias Ortiz is a Senior Education Specialist. She joined the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in 2011 as part of the Young Professional Program. Her first rotation was in the Competitiveness and Innovation Division. Since then, she has been part of the Education Division. Before joining the IDB, she previously worked as a consultant for the World Bank, UNDP, and the European Commission. Elena holds a Master Degree in Economic Analysis and a Ph.D. in Economics, both from the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). Her research focuses mainly on the development of skills and the transition of student to higher education and the workplace and the use of digital tools to improve learning. Her publication record includes international peer-reviewed journals.

Julián Cristia

Julian Cristia is a Principal Economist in the Research Department at the Inter-American Development Bank. His current research analyzes how governments can promote skills development using technology in a cost-effective way. He has evaluated programs that introduced technology into schools and expanded access to pre-primary education. Additionally, he has produced systematic reviews on early childhood development, the use of technology in education and how to improve learning in primary schools. His work has appeared in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Human Resources, and Journal of Health Economics. His research has been covered by several media outlets including The Economist, NPR, and Associated Press. Prior to joining the IDB, he worked as an Associate Analyst in the Health and Human Resources Division of the Congressional Budget Office. Cristia holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Maryland.

Santiago Cueto

Santiago Cueto es Licenciado en Psicología Educacional por la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú y Doctor por la Universidad de Indiana, Estados Unidos. Ha sido investigador visitante de la Universidad de California en Davis, en la Universidad de Oxford y Presidente de la Sociedad de Investigación Educativa Peruana (SIEP). Actualmente es Director Ejecutivo e Investigador Principal de GRADE, desde donde es representante por el Perú del estudio internacional Niños del Milenio. Adicionalmente es miembro del Consejo Nacional de Educación y profesor principal del Departamento de Psicología de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. En el 2003, en la conferencia anual del Global Development Network (GDN), uno de sus trabajos fue premiado con la medalla a la mejor investigación en la categoría Educación, Conocimiento y Tecnología. En el 2010, obtuvo el Premio Nacional de Psicología del Colegio Nacional de Psicólogos del Perú. En el 2018, fue condecorado por el Ministerio de Educación con las Palmas Magisteriales en el grado de Amauta.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us

Subscribe

Search

Related posts

  • Leveraging Technology to Reduce Student Dropout and Improve Learning
  • When It Comes to Education, Computers Can Be a Dangerous Temptation
  • What Interactive Learning Can Teach Latin America
  • Interactive Learning: Making it Work in Latin America
  • Vaccinating Kids Against the Learning Loss of School Closures

About this blog

The blog of the IDB's Research Department shares ideas that matter on public policy and development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Footer

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
facebook
twitter
youtube
youtube
youtube

    Blog posts written by Bank employees:

    Copyright © Inter-American Development Bank ("IDB"). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons IGO 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives. (CC-IGO 3.0 BY-NC-ND) license and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose. No derivative work is allowed. Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC- IGO license. Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license.


    For blogs written by external parties:

    For questions concerning copyright for authors that are not IADB employees please complete the contact form for this blog.

    The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IDB, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.

    Attribution: in addition to giving attribution to the respective author and copyright owner, as appropriate, we would appreciate if you could include a link that remits back the IDB Blogs website.



    Privacy Policy

    Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

    Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo

    Aviso Legal

    Las opiniones expresadas en estos blogs son las de los autores y no necesariamente reflejan las opiniones del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, sus directivas, la Asamblea de Gobernadores o sus países miembros.

    facebook
    twitter
    youtube
    This site uses cookies to optimize functionality and give you the best possible experience. If you continue to navigate this website beyond this page, cookies will be placed on your browser.
    To learn more about cookies, click here
    X
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT