Mathematics Education in Higher Education

teacher training and the use of app Inventor as a technological tool

Abstract

This article aimed to investigate the perceptions of academics from the Mathematics course at the Centro de Estudos Superiores de Tefé (CEST/UEA) regarding the use of the Inventor Software Application as a pedagogical alternative. To this end, we had the following specific objectives: Present the App Inventor software and the two applications developed from the software by the author during the last semester of the postgraduate course in Mathematics (CEST/UEA); map, through a questionnaire, the knowledge of participating academics about the App Inventor Software; analyze the questionnaire responses to understand participants’ perceptions about the Inventor Application as a pedagogical resource. The methodology unfolds in research with a qualitative approach, of the action research type, as a technique for data collection, a questionnaire with objective and subjective questions was used, applied to 12 academics from the 5th period of the Mathematics Degree course (CEST/UEA). As a result, it is possible to identify the perspectives of these academics regarding App Inventor and the possibility of its inclusion in their classes. It was also found that academics: think about its use in a “balanced” way so that students do not become dependent on the tool; they feel “afraid” about the absence of internet in local schools, given that access to the internet in the interior of the state of Amazonas is still a major problem; but, they positively understand the importance of creating new technological tools to assist in teaching mathematics.