The body and playfulness: promising tools for teaching and learning mathematics

Abstract

This paper will analyze the importance of playfulness as an instrument for learning mathematics, taking into account that the body allows to develop not only motor skills but also intellectual faculties involving high levels of abstraction, such as mathematical operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The methodology used was action research, through interviews to students, parents and teachers, as well as the systematization of experiences in the classroom by means of a field diary. It was found that traditional –tedious- teaching does not allow students to realize the importance of learning mathematics. It is concluded that it is necessary for the teachers to implement strategies that link playfulness and the body, in order to improve teaching-learning processes, which allows that mathematics do not be considered as something far from reality, but that be granted the status of a knowledge that improves the processes of understanding and reflection, facilitating the solution of practical problems.