The evaluation of the impact of O Círculo da Matemática do Brasil in schools all over the country has been concluded using questionnaires. Developed under the guidance of Bob and Ellen Kaplan, creators of the approach, the evaluation seeks to measure, amongst other aspects, student engagement. The results will be compiled and compared with another evaluation, performed shortly before lessons began, to compare the impact of the project. Results will be made public in February.
The 50 teachers involved in the project answered questions about their work in the classroom: large numbers, sense of space, sense of place, how to divide objects, numbering, signs and their understanding of some content that was presented, such as negative numbers. The tool created generates an index of mathematical capacity, and it is based on this index that analyses are performed.
The impact assessment will show the results of using the O Círculo da Matemática do Brasil approach: who benefited most from it, whether the younger or more advanced students, boys or girls, from one region of Brazil or another. In addition to this assessment, other tools will also contribute to the analysis: teacher roll call (in which they noted the students’ participation in class), the project’s blog and Facebook community, as well as regular field visits.
