The Use of Social Networks by Pre-Service Teachers for the Design of Mathematical Activities

Abstract

Currently, the use of social networks is part of the daily life of young people in Spain and they are at the service of interaction within a group. The main objective of this work is to analyze the activities designed by pre-service teachers for learning in Primary Education in which mathematical notions are involved through the use of social networks. The sample consisted of 148 pre-service teachers in the 3rd year of the Primary Education Degree. They were asked to design an activity focused on students aged 10-11 years in which the material was extracted exclusively from social networks. From a frequency and reticular analysis, we obtain the results that there is a greater frequency of use of the social network Twitter and the absence of specific educational social networks. Likewise, the mathematical contents that predominate in the proposals are statistics and probability. It can be affirmed that the use of the proposals with social networks is not appropriate for the educational level for which it is intended. In addition, the high frequency of content on statistics and probability is attributed to their own shortcomings in previous educational levels. These results will make it possible to adapt the training of pre-service teachers, both in relation to mathematical content and to the possible social networks to be used.