Professores de matemática em início de carreira: um olhar para a prática docente no ensino e aprendizagem de expressões algébricas

Abstract

Teacher education for algebra teaching has been discussed in researches, but there is still a need for many studies to fill gaps in this area of research. The present study had as its guiding question: What do teaching practices are manifested by mathematics teachers, in the career beginning, through teaching cases in the development of algebraic expressions in the classroom? To answer this question, we aimed to investigate teaching practices of teachers in beginning career in the teaching and learning of algebraic expressions. And as specific objectives to recognize the teachers’ conceptions about the teaching and learning of algebraic expressions; understand the choice of teaching profession and the beginning of the participants’ career; identify evidence of teacher education for teaching algebraic expressions and; identify teacher practices of teachers in the beginning of the career regarding algebraic expressions. For this, we dissert about the professional development of teachers and the phases resulting from the profession. In order to understand algebraic processes, we discuss about the concepts of algebra. These guided us in multiple possibilities of understanding the algebraic processes resulting from each conception. We conducted a bibliographic survey with researches that permeated our guiding question. We found multiple works, but we found that there are few studies directed to the proposed objective. From these references, in a qualitative approach, we elaborated an extension course in which we used teaching cases to approach tasks about algebraic expressions and, consequently, to collect data for research. Survey participants were nine early career math teachers / undergraduates. From the data analysis, we observed that the professional choice for teaching sometimes occurs as a second or third course option. When the choice is the first, we notice a devaluation by the family by not supporting the student in preference for the teaching career. We also noticed some difficulties arising from the beginning of the career, such as the immersion of the teacher in the classroom permeated by the insecurity in approaching mathematical contents and the relationship with the management and the teaching staff of the school. Working with algebraic expressions, we realize that beginning teachers can understand mathematics in many ways and that this content can be approached in its plurality. However, when they assume the teaching practice they reproduce algorithms and techniques associated with command steps as they consider it safer and more feasible according to the school curriculum. We also identified that teachers understand the development of algebraic expressions considering the construction of arithmetic concepts to achieve success in algebra.