O desenvolvimento do pensamento algébrico em alguns livros didáticos de matemática nos anos finais do ensino fundamental

Abstract

This work presents an investigation that aims to understand how algebraic thinking is developed in textbooks. This research seeks to answer the following question: “How are algebraic concepts introduced in activities present in mathematics textbooks for the 6th and 7th year of Elementary School?” As a theoretical basis, some concepts about the development of algebraic thinking were used, based on the concepts of Fiorentini, Miorim and Miguel (1993) and Fiorentini, Fernandes and Cristóvão (2005) and Ursini et al. (2005). To achieve the objective proposed for this research, a qualitative research methodological approach was adopted using the document analysis method, and for the analyzes indicators of the development of algebraic thinking adapted by Hamazaki (2010) were used. With this, it was possible to verify that: i) in the 6th year PE textbooks, algebraic concepts are used without formalizing the concept of unknown, however, all books analyzed resort to the use of letters or other types of symbols in operations with natural numbers; ii) in the 7th year PE textbooks the introduction is made with algebraic expressions using various contexts, and also with the use of numerical sequences. Based on the analyses, it was possible to verify that these activities can promote the significant development of algebraic thinking.