Uma investigação sobre a participação da história da matemática em uma sala de aula do ensino fundamental

Abstract

In this study we sought to investigate the pedagogical potentialities of History of Mathematics in a mathematics classroom of elementary school students, having as reference a perspective of situated learning. The following were defined as objectives of the research: to identify the pedagogical potentialities of the History of Mathematics, which become more evident in a real classroom; to identify the forms of participation of students during the conduct of activities in which the History of Mathematics is present, from the perspective of situated learning adopted; to investigate changes in participation and subsequent learning of students in the classroom, trying to understand how the presence of the History of Mathematics contributes to the occurrence of such changes. During the fieldwork, some activities related to the History of Mathematics on the subject "Integer Numbers" were prepared in cooperation with a teacher from a public municipal school in Belo Horizonte. Those activities were applied to groups of the seventh grade of Elementary School. Empirical material was collected during three months, with participant observation in classrooms of the referred teacher, especially those in which these activities were developed. Field notes, audio and video registers, two questionnaires addressed to students and interviews with the teacher and some students were used as instruments for collecting empirical data. The analysis of empirical material was based on studies on History in Mathematics Education and Situated Learning. As main results of the investigation it was found that during the development of historical activities several pedagogical potentialities of History of Mathematics were presented, and that these activities contributed to the change in participation and consequent learning of students.