Developing Mathematical Resilience: Students' Voice About the Use of ICT in Classroom

Introduction. Mathematical resilience is assumed as one of the most important areas in school context and whose focus should be given priority, due to the distress exhibited by students when learning and understanding basic knowledge in mathematics year after year. The main goal of this research was to study how students attending middle schools in the suburban area of the Portuguese capital are able to recognize and express mathematical resilience characteristics after solving several tasks in groups using ICT. Method. This research was conducted with 64 students from the 8th grade, from three socioeconomic disadvantaged schools, who answered a short open-ended questionnaire regarding their experience in working on a sequence of three articulated tasks in the mathematics classroom, with the use of ICT. Different categories and subcategories have emerged from the conducted inductive content analysis. Results. The results of this study suggest students perceived the experience of using ICT in their mathematics lessons as useful for their learning process and appreciated to enroll tasks through a practical teaching-learning environment. Students also highlighted the importance of their peers' support and perceived TinkerPlots software as a useful tool to enhance their understanding and learning of mathematical concepts, pointing how this learning experience became more interesting and easy to them. Nevertheless, a residual number of students reported feelings of distress whilst others indifference. Discussion and Conclusion. The results of this research suggest these students exhibit some characteristics the specialized literature has pointed as typical from mathematical resilient students. Some implications for school practitioners are formulated but further research is needed to enlarge the understanding of how ICT tools in certain environments can be effective to enhance students' learning while promoting mathematical resilient behaviors.