Social Epistemological Mathematics Remediation
Expert TheoryClinical Trial
Standard remedial mathematics tutoring often fails for low-achieving high school students because abstract exercises ignore students' real-world social and cultural experiences.
Picture this
Mathematical concepts are introduced by framing problem-solving within the familiar cultural and social practices of the students. This is like teaching geometry and budgeting through neighborhood construction or street-vending logistics rather than abstract textbook equations.
What the evidence says
Implementation resulted in a 97.0% zero-attendance rate among targeted students due to out-of-school scheduling friction, preventing statistical verification of math achievement gains.
- Who was studied
- N = 119 public high school teachers trained as tutors across 20 federal upper secondary schools in Mexico City.
- How
- Curriculum development based on social epistemological theory by Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), featuring 2 weeks of online training and 3 days of face-to-face instruction.
What to do
Structure remedial math instruction around students' sociocultural contexts and embed sessions within mandatory school timetables.
From the source
"The math training for tutors is based on the social epistemological theory which has a paradigm that rests on the use of contexts accounting for social and cultural characteristics of the students to build meaningful mathematical knowledge."
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