Histórias infantis e matemática: a mobilização de recursos, a apropriação de conhecimentos e a receptividade de alunos de 4ª série do ensino fundamental

Abstract

Considering a teaching/learning environment where literature and mathematics were connected, this research tried to investigate the ways by which the students of a fourth grade elementary school class acquired the school content, managed it and accepted the proposed methodology. In the theoretical reference, we discuss concepts and ideas such as: the perspectives of some authors on knowledge fragmentation and how it takes place in school; the means by which knowledge can be addressed in school; and the relationship of the students with such knowledge and with the teaching/learning context in which they are placed. We also discuss the impregnation of language with mathematics, the potential of reading, and the possibilities of developing a methodology that connects education, language, literature and mathematics. This research was developed in a fourth grade class of a public school in São Carlos (São Paulo State) according to a pedagogical sequence that articulated mathematics and children s literature the books chosen were The duck s lollipop and Sweet Fractions . The mathematical content developed was: fraction concept of part-whole, comparison and equivalence of fractions. The classes were recorded on video. Other information includes the number of students 33 and the fact that all of them participated in the pedagogical intervention, although only 13 had their learning processes and exercises analysed: the ones who had authorized us to do so. During the development of the pedagogical intervention, we could notice that many students were receptive to the work proposed i.e., the connection between literature and mathematics and acted as active subjects, taking part in the activities. Another aspect to point out is the importance of the use of manipulative materials for the students learning, because they allowed the children to come up with their own thoughts, and to produce and test hypotheses and strategies, getting involved in the process of understanding the material presented. By investigating the learning process of these students, we emphasize the educator s role as a mediator who, being aware of the previous knowledge of the students about certain subjects and understanding the strategies used by them to solve a situation, will be able to use some conditions and effective interventions in order to enable the students reasoning. Therefore, the students developed assumptions, strategies and interacted with the narratives, constructed mathematical notions, established a relationship of interiority with the knowledge, and the process itself involved the personal knowledge, life stories and experiences, i.e, the uniquenesses of each human subject who is part of the educational process and who creates himself/herself in daily school life, also creating the whole environment.