SCRATCH: A STUDY WITH STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES

Technological progress is a feature of everyday life in society, and school, as an integral part of it, must follow this development with changes in educational practice. School must work towards inclusion and equity of learning for all pupils. In this context, educational technologies appear to be very relevant tools regarding their potential for improving the education of children with learning difficulties. One of these educational technologies is the Scratch platform. The main objective of this study was to understand how the use of the Scratch software can contribute to the learning of mathematical content, specifically the affine function, by two children with learning difficulties. The research consisted of the application of a pre-test, followed by a two-session intervention and concluded with the application of the post-test. The mixed methodology focused on the quantitative analysis of pre- and post-test results and on the qualitative analysis of elements of the students' records, of the elements that they produced in the computer and of the researcher's field notes. The results suggest that the intervention had a significant impact on the overall performance of the two students, although with different relevance. The results also indicate that the work developed in Scratch enabled the students to have a better understanding of concepts, rules and symbols of mathematics. Despite the obvious limitations of this study and the impossibility of generalizing results, the conclusions provide arguments in favour of confirming Scratch as a valid and capable alternative for the promotion of learning, mathematical learning and the development of children with learning difficulties.