A álgebra nos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental: uma análise dos Planos de Estudos Tutorados de Minas Gerais

Abstract

The research seeks to investigate aspects inherent to the teaching of algebraic concepts and contents in the early years of elementary school, in order to deepen the knowledge about teaching algebra at this school level. These are the research questions: What are the algebraic contents and concepts defined by the Tutored Study Plans? What activities are proposed in this material for teaching and learning algebra in the early years? The general objective of this research is: To investigate the proposal of work present in the Tutored Study Plans for the early years of elementary school. And as specific objectives we have: To identify concepts and contents of the teaching of algebra present in the Tutored Study Plans of the initial years of elementary school; Analyze the activities present in the Tutored Study Plans and; Contribute to discussions about teaching and learning algebra in the early years of elementary school. This research is justified to the extent that we find the scarcity of works aimed at understanding the teacher education for teaching algebra and also on the teaching and learning of mathematics. In addition, it is based on the fact that the Early Algebra movement has been gaining prominence in recent years, by looking back to understand how students in the early years of elementary school build thinking skills algebraically. Endowed with a qualitative methodology for analyzing the data obtained, its main source of data production was the Tutored Study Plans that address algebraic concepts and content in the early years of elementary school and which were made available by the Minas Gerais State Department of Education in 2020 to try to reach students in the period of school closure and social isolation due to the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus. To this end, we conducted a qualitative research based on documentary analysis. Based on our investigations, we see a concern to stimulate the ability to recognize patterns, establish generalizations, understand the mathematical ideas that support generalization and algebraic content at later levels of education, the ability to raise hypotheses and justify them by language, and to lead to the establishment of relationships between the four operations. From this observation it was possible to verify that there is a direction of the activities proposed in the Tutored Study Plans analyzed, in the sense of the central ideas of Early Algebra, which characterizes the work with the mentioned topics as aspects intrinsically linked to the development of algebraic thinking. However, we also observed the absence of guidelines for parents and guardians to assist children in the development of activities, links that were not active and also few activities related to algebra. Also, the educational product developed was a didactic sequence that addresses tasks for teaching algebra in the early years of elementary school.