Significações geradas em situações desencadeadoras de aprendizagem de conceitos da geometria

Abstract

This research analyzed the meanings generated by students in the fourth year of elementary school in situations that trigger learning in the field of Geometry concepts. Based on the theoretical assumptions of Karl Marx's historical-dialectical materialism, Lev Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory and the studies of Alexei Leontiev, Vasily Davýdov and Pável Kopnin, a qualitative study was carried out in a fourth grade class at a public school in the interior of Minas Gerais. The specific objectives are: to understand the elements that show the formation of the students' mathematical thinking (geometric thinking); to identify which elements of the pedagogical intervention corroborate the study activity; and to analyze the role of the elements of mediation (instruments and signs) mobilized in the production of meanings about the conceptual field explored in the teaching-learning process. The object of this research was the development of the thinking of students in the fourth year of elementary school, based on meanings in situations that trigger the learning of geometry concepts. These situations sought to understand which meanings produced by elementary school students in situations that trigger the learning of geometry concepts corroborate the development of their thinking. The Didactic Unit developed is a children's storytelling involving triggering learning situations (TLS) that explored the logical and historical development of structuring concepts in Geometry. Based on the children's story book created by the teacher-researcher, "Vacations at Grandpa Carminho's Farm", the students were taken on a journey from the dawn of humanity, which sought to demonstrate the constitution of geometry over time, in different cultures and eras. The data consisted of the researcher's records in the field diary, the records produced by the students during the SDA and the transcript of the recordings made during the processes of signification established. The data was initially analyzed using the methodology known as Nuclei of Meaning. Subsequently, analysis was added using episodes and scenes. The importance of organizing situations in such a way that the content acquires meaning for the students was observed, since the processes of meaning take place through interaction. Most of the time, the students expressed the meaning they attributed to the concept, in other words, the way they internalized that knowledge. However, through interaction and the mediation of the teacher, classmates, instruments or signs, they were also able to generate concepts with socially legitimized meanings.