INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION Vol.37, No.

3, 2022

Method to optimize the learning of mathematics in high school students,

through programming logic
Luis Vivanco-Aldo
Universidad Privada Peruano Alemana, Lima, Perú
Wilver Auccahuasi
Universidad Privada del Norte, Lima, Perú
Patricia Bejarano
Escuela Superior La Pontificia, Lima, Perú
Esther Saenz-Arenas
Universidad Científica del Sur, Lima, Perú
Lucas Herrera
Universidad Continental, Huancayo, Perú
* Correspondence: Wilver Auccahuasi, Universidad privada del Norte, Lima, Perú.

Abstract: The science courses are and will be the basis of the students' knowledge, in this
sense the mathematics course is considered the most important course because in its content
it presents topics related to calculus, making their learning of vital importance in the design of
educational processes. Finance a review of the state of the art we find a series of works
dedicated to being able to enhance the mechanisms used for teaching, from the use of
scientific calculators to reaching certain computer programs of common use, in this work a
methodology is developed to be able to enhance the programming skills that teachers have in
a specific area of programming, where we can consider any programming language but also
any computer tool such as Excel spreadsheets. The methodology proposes the organization of
topics as specific theories, such as algebra, arithmetic, trigonometry, geometry, where
specific functions are developed for each specific topic, with the intention that they can be
understood more easily and in turn not complicated. to the teacher in his process of
adaptation of the materials and in the development of the classes. The intention is to enhance
the knowledge that teachers have instead of presenting a new programming language and that
they can learn in order to teach. The results show that by using the knowledge they have
regarding some computer tool, we managed to organize the study materials so that it is more
understandable at the time of the classes. As a conclusion we can indicate that in these times
of the COVID-19 product pandemic, the methodology that is presented becomes more
important because the classes are online and can help the learning of mathematics with the
help of these mechanisms to organize the study materials and improve the learning processes
of the math course.

Keywords: Mathematics, programming, theories, algorithms, libraries, learning.

1. Introduction

For students in educational centers. The mathematics course is considered the most
important, due to the number of hours they study per week, as well as the dependence for
understanding of other courses that require their knowledge, as is the case of the Physics

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course. For this reason the importance of their learning, in this context to be able to improve
learning in schoolchildren, many ideas and solutions arise capable of providing a better
teaching experience, with the use of technology many of these solutions are being presented,
as we can mention the use of programming languages such as PYTHON where they try to
strengthen the knowledge of mathematics accompanied with the teaching of programming
(Auccahuasi et al., 2019) (Palma et al., 2015) (Trigo et al., 2008).

One of the classic tools when performing calculation exercises is the calculator, in the market
we find many types of calculators, ranging from those that perform basic exercises to the
more complex ones that perform advanced calculation and graph the results for a better
understanding works are presented where the use of these calculators as well as graphing
programs are presented in order to strengthen the teaching of mathematics (Araya et al., 2007)
(Diaz et al., 2005).

When we refer to the teaching of mathematics in university careers, the challenge increases,
one of the key courses in this stage of studies is related to the linear Algebra course,
performing a quick statistics, we can indicate that the course has the highest number of
disapproved students and who require more than one cycle of studies to be able to approve it,
in this context, there are jobs where students who have been undergoing a course in a public
university in Argentina with the intention of being evaluated for an average of 5 years In order
to evaluate and recommend certain criteria to be able to improve the number of approved
students, for this objective we resorted to the use of programs dedicated to the calculation of
Linear Algebra, with which the performance of the students was improved (Craveri et al.,
2009 ) (Vergara et al., 2016).

We also find works where computational tools are applied to demonstrate the exercises
developed, in this aspect the use of the Excel tool is used as a learning mechanism and
verification of exercises (Santos et al., 2011). In the use of available computer tools, we
cannot ignore social networks, in this sense there are many methodologies that are being
presented to be able to use these applications in the teaching of certain topics related to
mathematics (Salas-Rueda et al. ., 2018). The use of social networks and with more emphasis
the applications related to the visualization of videos, are used more frequently, in history
courses, managing to increase the knowledge of certain facts, managing to integrate these
applications into the educational process (Salat et al., 2013).

In this search for alternatives to be able to use computational tools in the mathematics
learning process, we must not neglect the point of view of the teachers, who are in charge of
having the necessary skills to be able to teach, there are jobs where they are presents to
teachers the different tools available with the intention of being able to strengthen these skills
in favor of improving their performance in classes, (Villarraga et al., 2012). In this context,
the present methodology that is presented is focused on enhancing these skills that teachers
have with respect to the knowledge of some programming language, recommending
organizing the information and the way in which it can be presented to students related to
specific topics of mathematics , the intention is not to teach the teacher a new programming
language, but on the contrary, to be able to strengthen the language that has knowledge.

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2. Materials and Methods

In the development of the methodology, it is presented in figure 1, the block diagram of the
methodology, where the 3 main processes are defined, each of them is developed with the
intention of being able to apply the methodology, in each of them they are presented the
activities to be carried out for the benefit of being able to put together their class material.

Figure 1. Description of the methodology.

2.1. Definition of mathematical theories

The first stage is dedicated to being able to design the structure of the material, it will depend
on each one of the topics to be designed, the intention is to have defined the topics to be able
to develop, for the purpose of being able to demonstrate the methodology the area of
geometry is developed with the following Topics to be developed:

Study area: Geometry Topics to be developed:

• Calculation of perimeters of the square

• Calculation of perimeter of the rectangle

• Calculation of perimeter of the circumference

• Calculation of the area of the square

• Calculation of the area of the rectangle

• Calculation of the area of the circumference

With each of these topics to be developed, the intention of creating a file, a spreadsheet or a
function for each topic, which would lead us to later develop our own mathematical library
and thus be able to increase new topics and with it grow our library.

Figure 2.Organization of topics in a file in Excel.

Figure 2 shows as an example of the first stage of the methodology, the organization of the
first 6 topics to be developed, in this case each of the topics, corresponds to a calculation
hour in excel.

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Figure 3.Organization of topics in the Matlab tool.

In figure 3, the organization of the topics is presented using the Matlab programming tool,
where each of the 6 topics will be represented by a function, in the demonstration of the
methodology, each of the steps and tasks will be indicated in Excel and Matlab.

2.2. Preparation of exercises by designing algorithms

With the intention of preparing the exercises, the methodology proposes the preparation of
the exercises for each of the topics developed in the previous stage. It must be considered that
for each of the exercises the Excel spreadsheets will be used and in the case of Matlab the
previously created functions will be used.

In this second stage, it is recommended to develop the theory with an explanation, as well as
the exercises that can be presented as an example and some as a challenge and as tasks,
depending on the teacher who lists his material, he will define the exercises according to the
complexity that you deem appropriate and will depend on the level of your students.

Figure 4. Development of the first exercise to calculate the area of a square in Matlab

In figure 4, you can see the development of the exercise of calculating the area of the square
using the Excel tool, in the form of completing the fields, as well as the verification of the
result, in figure 5, it is presented in the same exercise using the tool matlab, where the
development of the function calculation of the area of the square is presented, it is presented
as a code, to verify the result, you have to make the call of the function in the command line.

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The results of the function and the way it will be executed is explained in the next stage of
the methodology.

2.3. Evaluation of results

The third stage proposed by the methodology is the execution of the exercises and the
evaluation of the results. For the fulfillment of this stage, you have to complete the exercises
and topics in each of the spreadsheets in the case of the Excel tool and in the case of the
Matlab tool you have to finish programming each of the functions.

Figure 5. Result of the execution of the exercises in Excel

Figure 6. Result of the execution of the exercises in Matlab.

In this figure 5, the results of the evaluation of the exercises are presented using the Excel
tool, to improve the evaluation it is necessary for the students to send the file so that the
teacher can evaluate the activities. In figure 7, the results are presented after evaluating the
exercises with the Matlab tool, where the final result and the way in which the calculation of
the area of the square function is presented is presented, in this case for evaluation purposes,
the student you can send a similar image to figure 6.

In the evaluation of the exercises that can be presented to the students, figure 8 is presented,
where the evaluation flow diagram of the proposed exercise is described, indicating each of
the steps to be developed if each of the areas is carried out with success proceeds to the next
topic, you cannot go to the next topic until the exercise is done.

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Figure 7. Exercise evaluation flow chart.

3. Results

Finishing the description of the methodology, we proceed to indicate the results obtained by
referring to the two tools used to describe and apply the methodology. Each of them with its
particularity, keeping in mind in both cases the good predisposition of the teacher, so that the
methodology can be put into practice.

• For the Excel tool, the minimum knowledge to use the tool must be considered,
therefore it is important that the teacher can know the tool. The results show that it is possible
to have an Excel file for areas of knowledge such as Artirmetics, Algebra, Trigonometry and
Geometry. In each of the files you can have as many spreadsheets as topics we want to carry
out. In this way, students can open their excel file for each study area and can carry out the

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activities contained in each of the spreadsheets, in this case the activities can be designed to
be able to corroborate the results obtained manually. Thus the student begins to handle the
mathematical functions that are available in the Excel tool.

• In the case of the Matlab tool, a function was performed for each topic, in this
way it is organized in the form of a mathematical library, so that the student begins to practice
the exercises, the first thing to do is find the function to work. and then you can call it from
the command window or by making a programming file, containing the programming lines.

To finish we can describe that the computer tools, which we normally use in our daily tasks,
we can give them an application in the teaching of mathematics, in this way we can enhance
and take advantage of this availability, what would remain pending is to prepare the material,
the methodology described It can be scaled and can be complemented with other courses such
as physics among others.

4. Conclusions

It is concluded that the agreement of the theories that govern mathematics are important as
knowledge of the basic sciences and serves as a support to demonstrate and verify certain
laws in other subjects, such as physics, in this context their learning must be considered As a
fundamental strategy, therefore, to achieve the educational objectives, with respect to the
learning and teaching of mathematics, we can make use of the computational tools that we
can have for the benefit of this work. The methodology presented is practical in its use and
implementation, being scalable and depends on the teacher's ability to design the practical
material.

The results show that the methodology can be implemented through the use of the excel tool
and through the use of a programming language such as Matlab, these two tools were used for
their simplicity in handling and familiarization in their use. Each of them adapts to how to
assemble and organize the contents. The methodology can be applied using other tools such
as programming languages, we can use the programming language Python, C, C ++, Java,
among others.

It can also be scaled to levels of complexity and it depends on the level of difficulty that can
be presented in the exercises, this task is fundamental and depends on the teacher. In most
cases, the process is finalized, resulting in the design and implementation of a library of
mathematical functions, which can solve different types of exercises, with which it is possible
to improve the skills in the programming area by the teacher. As the students, and as a
consequence of the use and application of them, the students can understand the importance
and the direct relationship that mathematics has with programming, if this synergy is
achieved, consider the students are candidates to be able to improve these skills and may be
inclined towards studying undergraduate degrees related to engineering, computer science,
informatics, and systems design.

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