Chapter 3 - Playful Tools for Teaching Mathematics: A Course for Telesecundaria Teachers in Tuxtepec, Oaxaca

In Mexico, Telesecundaria is an educational modality that is part of the basic level of the National Educational System. It is primarily aimed at rural and hard-to-reach communities, combining televised lessons with in-person teaching provided by a single teacher per group, who is responsible for all subjects. This model presents significant didactic and disciplinary challenges, as it demands from teachers a wide range of competencies that are often not addressed in their initial training. Within this context, the present study aimed to develop, apply, and validate a questionnaire to diagnose the Mathematical Didactic Knowledge (CDM, for its initials in Spanish) of Telesecundaria teachers. This type of knowledge is understood as a set of pedagogical, disciplinary, and contextual understandings that enable effective mathematics teaching. The CDM model used in this study considers six key dimensions: epistemological, cognitive, affective, interactional, mediational, and ecological. The diagnostic process was carried out within a training course offered to 15 telesecundaria teachers from the Cuenca del Papaloapan region in Oaxaca. The process included the application of pre- and post-session questionnaires, classroom observations, and the analysis of didactic materials. The Content Validity Index (CVI) and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient were used to validate the instrument, which ultimately comprised 18 items. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.