Concepções epistemológicas e experiências de professores de matemática sobre números fracionários : as implicações em suas práticas na 5ª série do ensino fundamental

Abstract

The aim of this work is to investigate the existence of relationships among the conceptions of the Mathematic teachers about fractionary numbers and the teaching process of this subject in the 5th level of the fundamental school. Based on the theory of the Conceptual Fields from Vergnaud, we analyzed data by doing the comparison between two situations: how the teacher learned and how does he teaches the concept of fraction. Our exposition was compound by ten Mathematic teachers who teach in the 5th level, that, in the beginning were interviewed through out the DHC–Dialectical Hermeneutical Circle and after they had their fraction concept introductory class observed. Being this research made on a qualitative character, it was utilized the Interactive Methodology, cause of its meaningful contribution to collect and analyze data. The DHC technique made considerably easier the data collection and gave us the opportunity of a better interaction among the interviewed ones and the researcher. The results we found showed that as men as women were capable of carrying out good didactical transpositions, those teachers between 40 and 45 years old, the ones with more general time of teaching, the ones with more experience in the 5th level and those who act only in the Prived School were better in the observed classes. Other important factor to be considered is that the Mathematical Education haven’t influenced conceptions and parctices of teachers differently. We observed that there are teachers with a very well made conceptions about fractions, conscious that the didactical transposition which they are doing in their classes is disconnected from the pupils’ reality and as they know the necessity of a contextualized teaching of this subject, meanwhile they can not be free from old practices. This studying points to future researchers which ones can clarify the incoherence between teachers’ speeching and doing. We confirmed that there is a relationship between the conceptions that the teachers have about the Mathematic Knowledge and the procedures to teach and evaluate adopted by them. The part/all model is the most worked by the collaborator teachers of this research and almost always it is associated to the procedure of double counting which makes the pupils to think about fraction not as numbers to learn, but as part of things. We concluded that many difficulties from the pupils to learn about fraction is a consequence from the model of the Didactical Transposition done by the teacher in the moment of teaching that concept.