Um estudo sobre a produção de significados de estudantes do ensino fundamental para área e perímetro

Abstract

This work aims at presenting our investigation which had as its objectives the diagnosis of possible learning difficulties related to the notions of area and perimeter of plane geometric figures. In order to achieve this aim, we decided to develop a set of tasks that allowed us to identify the production of meanings to perimeter and area by primary school students. Making use of a qualitative approach to research, our study had as its theoretical basis the Model of Semantic Fields, which has also been used as an analysis tool for the research subjects’ meaning production, when they solved the proposed tasks. These were developed following specific characteristics, with theoretical basis, and were applied to a pair of students of the nineth year of primary school in a state school in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. The investigation also aimed at creating an educational product that consists of a set of tasks to be used by teachers of the fourth cicle of elementary school (grades 7- 8) and in didactic orientations that can help teachers to develop these tasks in their classes. This work has also allowed us to evaluate the importance of the perspective of the meaning production to the mathematics educator, both in the research as well as in the educational practice, involving geometric themes.