The database Gestinv as a tool to develop mathematics teachers' hermeneutical competence

This study explores how interaction with the Gestinv database, which contains data from Italian Large-Scale Assessments (LSAs), can impact on teachers’ competence in identifying and interpreting students’ mathematical errors, understood as hermeneutical competence. It builds on the widespread difficulties emerged among mathematics teachers across different school levels in a previous research questionnaire. This research presents a case study involving a lower secondary school teacher during a semi-structured qualitative interview focused on analysing an item from the national LSAs mathematics tests. The interview was conducted using the Gestinv database technology tool and an increase in hermeneutical competence seems to have been detected.