Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have an increasing influence on the way we interact, learn, and live. The increase in teaching and learning methodologies that are mediated by ICT in the field of education and in the domestic settings encourages the design of new effective technological tools, supported by scientific research and development to improve student learning. The challenge psychology is facing in the education field is to promote those technologies and make them available to the education community. Technologies also would produce attractive items for users and realistic commercial issues for businesses. This also allows an effective transfer for scientific work, providing visibility to Research and Development. In this context, the main aim of the article is to describe the process to get an agreement between Babyradio (a children’s entertainment company: https://babyradio.es/) and our research team, starting a collaborative work between two groups of people (Babyradio’s technical designer and Psychologist-Engineers software designer), in order to create several educative applications (APPs) in the field of early mathematics cognition. The institutional framework of the relationship of the R&D project and a children’s entertainment company is described. The article also focuses on experience in Psychology, Technological Innovation, and Entrepreneurship. In considering the efficiency of the agreement, we present different APPs designed for tablets and smartphone devices, adapted to the different operating systems (IOS, Android, Windows). APPs are designed to instill the cognitive fundamentals associated with early math learning for students aged 4 to 7 years. The study developed after this babyradio-university enterprise agreement contributes to the development of mathematics skills in children, aged 4–7 years, so that they can successfully meet the mathematics school requirements; it also contributes to encouraging a more positive attitude toward mathematics. This study also suggests how the education system and software and educational content developers’ companies would manage verified instructional APPs, with a more realistic commercial perspective.

One of the means for representing quantities/magnitudes is the mental number line. It is still a nonsolved question as to whether the method of learning mathematics in the early years could improve this type of estimating. A total of 233 students, aged four and five years, who learned mathematics with a new method called Open Algorithm Based on Number or the more traditional Closed Based on Ciphers approach, were evaluated with a reliable estimation on the number line test. Results revealed significant differences in participants’ estimation functions based on the learning method used. Students who learned mathematics through the Open Algorithm Based on Number method used a linear representation more efficiently than those who were taught with the Closed Based on Ciphers methodology. This group exhibited a logarithmic function in their approach. We discussed whether these differences can be attributed to a recurrent practice in estimation tasks at school, characterized by the Open Algorithm Based on Number methodology.

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The traditional way of teaching mathematics generates significant learning difficulties in students that are reflected in their academic performance. In recent years, the number of teachers and researchers interested in finding innovative, flexible and comprehensible methodologies has increased. The main objective of this article has been to carry out a theoretical review of the methodologies for learning/teaching mathematics at school level. Central elements of international and national method initiatives have been highlighted. The empirical evidence on the Singapore method and the Algorithm Based on Numbers (ABN) method confirms the need to include innovative and manipulative strategies in the classroom. The Singapore method has been shown as a source that improves students′ problem solving skill, mathematical competence, boosting reasoning, and a higher motivation. Some studies focused on the effectiveness of the ABN method and its influence on mathematical cognition. The use of this methodology and learning in flipped classroom have obtained significant results in teacher training. These results could provide guidance about how to improve pre-service education in Primary Bachelor’s Degree. The findings presented in the manuscript could be a basis for opening new lines of quantitative research, with the aim of analysing problem solving and the use of manipulative materials in mathematics. Thus, future research should focus on analysing the cognitive processes involved in mathematical learning, carrying out empirical studies in schools. In addition, it is necessary to improve future teachers’ training, so that they can learn about new alternatives for mathematical teaching and the available resources to be able to put it into practice. Moreover, alternative methodologies are a necessary driver for the improvement of mathematical performance both inside and outside the classroom, and also for the technological and economic development of countries.

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Las Tecnologías del Aprendizaje y el Conocimiento (TAC) tienen una influencia cada vez mayor en la manera de mediar el aprendizaje de los más jóvenes. El incremento del proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje mediado por las TAC en el ámbito de la educación y en el ámbito doméstico, induce a la creación de nuevas herramientas efectivas, avaladas por la ciencia y diseñadas para mejorar el aprendizaje de nuestros alumnos. El desafío al que se enfrenta la psicología de la educación consiste en fomentar éstas tecnologías y ponerlas al servicio de la comunidad educativa y sin perder de vista el hecho de generar productos atractivos para los usuarios y que puedan generar rendimiento comercial para las empresas. Pretendiendo generar además de una transferencia efectiva de la labor científica, el aumento en la visibilidad de la investigación. En este trabajo, presentamos 9 aplicaciones (APPs) diseñadas para Tablet y Smartphone, adaptadas a los diferentes sistemas operativos actuales, destinadas a trabajar sobre las bases cognitivas asociadas con el aprendizaje de la matemática temprana. Con el objeto de crear una herramienta atractiva para el alumnado de 4 a 7 años, se ha contado con la colaboración de la empresa de entretenimiento y divulgación infantil Babyradio, colaborando en el desarrollo gráfico y en la transferencia de los resultados de la inves tigación. Una vez demostrada la validez empírica de estas APPs, los maestros, el sistema educativo y las empresas de software dispondrían de un material de apoyo didáctico contrastado. El objetivo principal del trabajo es contribuir en el desarrollo de las habilidades matemáticas de los niños de 4 a 7 años para que estos puedan afrontar con éxito los requerimientos de la escuela y para que puedan resolver situaciones en sus vidas diarias, promoviendo por otro lado, el cambio actitudinal del alumnado con respecto a las matemáticas

Desde hace más de una década, el currículum de Educación Primaria pone más énfasis en el cálculo mental que en el cálculo escrito, aunque en la práctica docente se siga priorizando la enseñanza de algoritmos escritos verticales. En este sentido, la enseñanza y aprendizaje de estos algoritmos sigue generando ciertas dificultades en parte del alumnado. Esto hace que en los centros educativos se estén implementando alternativas al cálculo escrito tradicional,con el objetivo de incentivar el desarrollo de estrategias cognitivas de cálculo mental y mejorar la competencia matemática del alumnado. El presente estudio tiene como finalidad analizar las posibles diferencias en cálculo escrito y cálculo mental en último ciclo de Educación Primaria, comparando alumnos que siguen dos metodologías distintas de aprendizaje de las matemáticas, como son el método Abierto Basado en Números (ABN) y el método Cerrado Basado en Cifras (CBC). Actualmente, está en ejecución un estudio empírico que cuenta con una muestra de 245 participantes, 106 pertenecientes al grupo experimental (ABN) y 139 al grupo control (CBC). Los instrumentos de evaluación empleados en este estudio fueron distintas pruebas de resolución aritmética. El grupo experimental mostró un rendimiento superior en la variable cálculo mental (XGC = 9.18; XGE= 13.21), siendo significativas las diferencias entre los grupos (p < .001). Por el contrario, el grupo control mostró puntuaciones superiores en cálculo escrito frente al grupo experimental (XGC = 16.71; XGE =15.38), siendo de nuevo significativas estas diferencias (p < .001). Estos resultados sugieren profundizar en las estrategias cognitivas de cálculo mental utilizadas por el alumnado y su posible influencia en el rendimiento matemático y en otras áreas del currículum de Educación Primaria.

Educational interventions are necessary to develop mathematical competence at early ages and prevent widespread mathematics learning failure in the education system as indicated by the results of European reports. Numerous studies agree that domain-specific predictors related to mathematics are symbolic and non-symbolic magnitude comparison, as well as, number line estimation. The goal of this study was to design 4 digital learning app games to train specific cognitive bases of mathematical learning in order to create resources and promote the use of these technologies in the educational community and to promote effective scientific transfer and increase the research visibility. This study involved 193 preschoolers aged 57–79 months. A quasi-experimental design was carried out with 3 groups created after scores were obtained in a standardised mathematical competence assessment test, i.e., low-performance group (N = 49), high-performance group (N = 21), and control group (N = 123). The results show that training with the 4 digital learning app games focusing on magnitude, subitizing, number facts, and estimation tasks improved the numerical skills of the experimental groups, compared to the control group. The implications of the study were, on the one hand, provided verified technological tools for teaching early mathematical competence. On the other hand, this study supports other studies on the importance of cognitive precursors in mathematics performance.