The Future of Education

The development of critical and creative thinking skills is a priority in contemporary curricula and is essential for the holistic education of students and their preparation for the challenges of the 21st century (OECD, 2019). In this context, active methodologies such as cooperative learning, combined with the integration of new technologies, are effective in promoting more dynamic, reflective and creative learning environments (Gillies, 2016). This communication presents an account of a pedagogical experience undertaken as part of a doctoral project aimed at understanding the impact of cooperative learning on the development of critical and creative thinking skills in Maths A students. The research, which was quantitative in nature and had a quasi-experimental design, involved 119 students from six STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) classes. The results presented in this communication refer specifically to two classes in the experimental group (n = 51). The activity was planned according to the collaborative method "Pairs Think Aloud to Solve Problems" (Silva et al., 2019) and consisted in solving, in heterogeneous collaborative groups of four, a geometric task that involved programming, in the Python language and on a graphing calculator, a path on the Cartesian plane based on vectors and angles. The graphing calculators were connected to the TI-Innovator Rover robot, which physically executed the paths on sheets of graph paper, allowing visual analysis of the accuracy of the proposed solutions. Data collection included direct observation, written productions, individual reflections and multimodal records (photographs and videos). Progress was observed in critical thinking (interpreting information, evaluating hypotheses, explaining and reformulating strategies) and creative thinking (originality, cognitive flexibility and fluency) (Lopes et al., 2019). The collaborative method used promoted the verbalization of reasoning and individual and collective responsibility, while the integration of technology facilitated the contextualized application of mathematical content. It can be concluded that the combination of cooperative learning and new technologies can be an effective pedagogical strategy to promote critical and creative skills, in line with the Essential Learning for Mathematics A (DGE, 2018) and the Profile of Students Leaving Compulsory Education (Martins et al., 2017).