ANÁLISE DE ERROS NO CONTEÚDO DE ÁLGEBRA NO 8° E 9° ANO DO ENSINO FUNDAMENTAL: ESTUDO DE CASO

Abstract

: The present study aims at analyzing and categorizing those possible difficulties of students from the 8^th and 9^th grades of the Brazilian Middle School while they were solving algebra problems. Our perspective is based on the theoretical approach of teaching mathematics through error analysis and takes into account the premise that an error can reveal several types of implicit knowledge not necessarily detected in a typical assessment. In this regard, we propose a categorization of probable difficulties experienced by 17 students from the 8th and 9th grades in a sample of 48 students relying on “model questions”. The sample considered two different public schools in the countryside in the State of Paraná, being one of them localized on the outskirts of the Municipality of Pato Branco and in the central region. After reviewing the exercises solved by the students and applying the categories generated for each group, without ignoring the presence of individual barriers, we carried out two specific playful activities observing the type of difficulty of each group. The results suggest that recreational activities, especially those conceived for the student’s difficulties, an idea of ​​a situation proposed by the Theory of Conceptual Fields by Gérard Vergnaud, can help in the understanding and emergence of implicit knowledge. In addition, they were essential to arouse and increase interest in mathematics, especially among students whose learning history had been of greater difficulty in prior assessments to this study.