Mathematical thinking and the VESS model: a descriptive study

Abstract

Critical, creative, and flexible thinking is one of the educational priorities in the 21st Century, at a time in which the world is showing its most ephemeral and uncertain side. In this sense, visible thinking is a fundamental tool for achieving more significant and meaningful learning. The VESS (Meaningful Life with Balance and Wisdom) model, considering how we learn, provides different tools, such as the aforementioned, which facilitate learning. Thus, thinking, and, more specifically, the development of mathematical thinking through the VESS model, provides an open door towards the development of basic cognitive skills, such as attention, metacognition, and memory, and has a direct effect on the three areas of the early childhood education curriculum. The aim of the present work is to discover, in a descriptive manner, how the learning of the VESS model influences future teachers. In the present article, a series of descriptive, correlational, and survey-based models conducted at the University of Cordoba (Córdoba, Spain) are described. Beforehand, a validation of the instrument was performed, which obtained high goodness-of-fit indices, with an adequate validity and reliability.