Ensinando e aprendendo geometria: uma experiência com o software Cabri-Géomètre II na 5a série do ensino fundamental.

Abstract

In the last three decades, geometry teaching in Brazil has had serious problems. A number of Brazilian researchers have identified the cause of such problems and proposed ways likely to overcome this chaotic scenario. One of the proposals presented for the enhancement of geometry teaching and learning is to use computers in this process. In recent years, quite often, due to this, a number of programs have been developed to be used as tools in that process, but its usage by the teacher must always be associated with the theoretical principles in which his practice is grounded. The objective of this thesis is to evaluate the impact of the program Cabri-Géomètre II on twenty-four 11-year-olds learning geometry. The students are from a public elementary school in Jaú, São Paulo state. To achieve this goal, a pedagogical intervention a course involving some of the geometric content those students were supposed to learn was planned, performed and evaluated by the author of this study who played the role of teacher and researcher. The course took place in the computer room of the school. Eight computers with the program Cabri-Géomètre II installed were used. The students were divided into eight groups and the geometric contents (angles, angular measure, bisection of an angle, consecutive angle, adjacent angle, complementary angles, supplementary angles, vertical angles) were organized into six different topics. For each topic a list containing the objectives of the task, the geometric concepts to be learned and the instructions on how to do the task was made. In the end of the experiment, the students did two written tests individually on the subjects studied and completed a questionnaire evaluating the course. The results show that the use of the program Cabri-Géomètre II as a support tool in geometry teaching, how it was described here, was positive. Nevertheless, other similar studies have presented less favorable results suggesting that computer aid in teaching still needs to be investigated. As a result, we suggest some changes in the course so that the teaching experience and the students learning can improve. We also put forward some ideas which may optimize public policies on computerizing schools.