A Geometria da escola e a utilização de história em quadrinhos nos anos finais do Ensino Fundamental

Abstract

This study deals with a qualitative investigation with quantitative aspects carried out during 2012 and 2013. It aims to learn about the reality of Geometry teaching in the final years of primary school in the municipal schools in the city of Pelotas in order to provide the History of Mathematics as a mediating instrument for teaching and learning through cartoons. The theoretical foundation is made up of three stages. Firstly, the search of elements about the history of mathematics and cartoons as pedagogical resources to be used in the classroom. The Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciElO) dataset is used for free searches on the internet. It also uses the approaches provided by Miguel (1997, 2009) as well as the ones provided by Vergueiro (2010). In the second stage a bibliographic study, regarding the mediation concepts, zone of proximal development, spontaneous and scientific knowledge about Vygotsky theory (2011) and researchers in the area, was carried out. This study was used in the elaboration of the product of this research. The third stage resorts to Pavanello (1989) and to event publication datasets such as the National Meeting of Mathematics Education in order to capture elements to understand the teaching of Geometry in the schools. As far as the empirical field is concerned, it focuses on how Geometry has been taught in schools located in the central district of Pelotas; teachers meetings aiming at asking the subjects about the placing of Geometry contents in the program, main difficulties in the approach and how learning takes place with nine subjects; lastly, an open interview was carried out with three teachers who were absent from the focal group meeting. The analysis of the data was carried out by convergence of speech and highlighted by the elements identified in the bibliographic revision. Among the results found, the following was observed: lack of time for the approach and the placing of Geometry in the final years in addition to the precarious state of schools structures as hindering factors. It was also concluded that the four skills from the blocks related to Geometry are not approached in all the investigated schools. Before this reality, a cartoon almanac which tells the history of mathematicians who studied the deficit concepts verified in the questionnaire (Tales de Mileto and Euclides from Alexandria) was elaborated. It also includes recreational activities, which are entertaining and apply the geometric concepts developed aiming at promoting the mediation of the construction of this mathematical knowledge.