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Anxiety is a state of mind of intense worry that can affect students' performance both positively and negatively. Internationally, recent studies show high percentages of students diagnosed with anxiety and depression. This paper seeks to quantitatively analyze how anxiety is related to academic performance in Ecuadorian students. An Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) model with school fixed effects estimates an educational production function. The results confirm that, up to certain levels of anxiety, students' scores improve. However, once anxiety levels are elevated -a threshold that is higher for male students-scores are negatively affected. These findings are relevant for two reasons. First, during adolescence, experiences and interpersonal relationships impact personality construction and influence the development of cognitive, non-cognitive and emotional skills. Second, given the current post-pandemic situation, in which anxiety is a frequent scenario. This research concludes that it is necessary to reflect on the importance of rethinking pedagogical processes in schools and to analyze strategies to introduce mental health in the school curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we describe the elements that characterize the teaching of Mathematics in the Ave María Schools, founded and run by Andrés Manjón in Granada between 1889 and 1923. He stood up for a peculiar model of integrated education, based on Christian values, and he also developed his own methodological principles, similar in many ways to those of the emerging École Nouvelle. The selection and analysis of several sources has allowed us to set his teaching of Mathematics within this pedagogical framework and has suggested us the idea that the strategies used by Manjón in order to teach Arithmetic and Geometry could be innovative at that time and, perhaps, valuable from the point of view of contemporary Didactics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of the management of a didactic device formulated by a Mathematics male and Biology female teacher from a secondary school in which they sought a codisciplinary study. Based on the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic, the results of an exploratory study that sought to characterize the management of a didactic device for the study of plant growth in secondary school are reported; In particular, we analyze the relevance of mathematical knowledge in its development. The main results indicate that the study enabled the protagonists to be the students: they formulated and answered questions, achieving autonomy and responsibility for the search for information in various media; however, mathematical knowledge did not occupy a prominent place during the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between students' perceptions of the type of teaching they experience in mathematics [more or less student centred] and their reported emotions, self-concept and disposition. It also addresses the question of whether there are differences in this relationship for girls and boys. It uses survey data from almost 300 year 7 Chilean students, clustered in 8 different classrooms. A correlational analysis suggests that there is a positive significant association between how student centred the teaching is perceived to be and students' more positive attitudes. Nevertheless, this effect was independent of sex, suggesting that more student-centred teching do not necessarily offer an advantage for girls, but are positive for both, boys and girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The definite integral is a central concept in the applications of calculus to experimental sciences and engineering, and consequently, a relevant didactic research topic. This paper analyses the different meanings of the definite integral by applying theoretical tools of the ontosemiotic approach to mathematical knowledge and instruction, particularly, the interpretation of meaning in terms of systems of operational and discursive practices related to the resolution of types of problems and the algebraization levels model of mathematical activity. Types of problem-situations and configurations of practices, objects, and processes are identified that allow us to characterize and articulate the various partial meanings of the definite integral (geometric-intuitive, as a limit of Riemann sums and cumulative function) as well as its extensions to the case of the double integral (as a particular case of the multiple) and the line, from the most intuitive to the most formal. The analysis allows us to identify the generality degrees of the objects of integral calculus and the role of algebra in the characterization of the meanings of the definite integral, which must be considered in the planning and management of the processes of teaching and learning of integral calculus in engineering degrees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a theoretical model for the study of mathematical talent, grounded in the Anthropological Theory of Didactics (ATD) and the notion of creativity. This model proposes two components of creative mathematical activity: the mathematical component, which supports mathematical techniques; and the creative component, defined by four functions: producing new techniques, optimizing techniques, considering tasks from different angles, and adapting a technique. Based on the theoretical model and a reference epistemological model on infinite sequences, a learning design comprising six problem situations was developed and then implemented in an institution established to foster mathematical talent. The analysis of two tasks performed by a pair of children offers a case study that illustrates how tackling challenging tasks of the same kind, in a favorable institutional setting, makes it possible to develop mathematical talent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explain Leibniz's opinion according to which creation and demonstration in mathematics are founded upon a certain general logic that is conversant not only with syllogisms and prosyllogisms, but also with the rules of particular progressions or functions. If this is the case, there would be a universal mathematics or good characteristics, bringing several consequences on what is thought to be the foundation and range of human knowledge. We intend to do such an inquiry mainly using the fictional clash between Theophilus, that stands for Leibniz himself, and Philalethes, that stands for the English philosopher John Locke, regarding the alleged impossibility of squaring the circle claimed by the latter, that is portrayed in the New Essays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how effective education institutions improve educational achievement, regardless of students' socioeconomic backgrounds. The paper utilizes a multilevel model using data from the Third Regional Comparative and Explanatory Study (TERCE) for Ecuadorian students in reading and mathematics. Findings show that between 31 and 52% of the variation in test results is due to differences between schools, thus underlining the importance of the compensatory effect of schools in promoting equality of opportunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]