Orientador : Anna Regina Lanner de Moura / Dissertação (mestrado) ¿ Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-09T12:44:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Scarlassari_NathaliaTornisiello_M.pdf: 1150253 bytes, checksum: 3ff8a24b10e00322ae200a7208de6031 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: Esta pesquisa, de caráter qualitativo, tem como objetivo principal discutir Que tipo de dificuldades alunos da 6ª série do Ensino Fundamental apresentam em uma situação B de ensino de álgebra, comparativamente a alunos da mesma série que passaram por uma situação A de ensino de álgebra? As situações de ensino tiveram a seguintes características: A situação A ocorreu em uma escola da rede particular de ensino da cidade de Piracicaba, em 1999, em duas classes de 6ª série e constituiu-se fonte de dados para a nossa pesquisa de Iniciação Científica que versou sobre as dificuldades dos alunos em álgebra. Atuamos como observadoras das aulas de álgebra que foram desenvolvidas numa abordagem tradicional, pela manipulação simbólica, resolução e correção de listas de exercícios na lousa. Os dados foram provenientes das respostas dos alunos a uma lista de exercícios. Dessas respostas analisamos e categorizamos as dificuldades em álgebra, aí manifestas. A situação B de ensino de álgebra ocorreu em uma escola estadual da cidade de Campinas, em duas classes de 6ª série onde atuamos como pesquisadoras e professora das classes pesquisadas. Foram trabalhadas atividades que propunham o desenvolvimento dos nexos conceituais da álgebra elementar, tais como: fluência, variável, campo de variação, linguagem, operacionalidade e unidade. Após esse desenvolvimento solicitamos aos alunos responderem a mesma lista de exercício usada na situação A. Comparamos as dificuldades encontradas nas duas situações para os mesmos exercícios. Esta comparação indica que os alunos da situação B encontraram menos dificuldades para realizar as atividades e que a freqüência dos erros, nessa situação, foi menor. Este trabalho permitiu afirmar que a Situação B de ensino proporcionou uma aprendizagem mais significativa das idéias algébricas correspondentes aos exercícios solicitados do que a Situação A, de abordagem tradicional / Abstract: The main purpose of this research is to discuss under a qualitative aspect What kind of difficulties the sixth-grade students of Elementary school present with regard to the Algebra learning situation B in comparison with those students from the same grade who have experienced the Algebra learning situation A? The learning situations had the following characteristics: The situation A occurred in two sixth-grade classes of one private school located in the city of Piracicaba, Sao Paulo, in 1999, and it has constituted data source for the Undergraduate Research that discussed students' difficulties regarding algebra. We have been acting as observers in the algebra classes, which were prepared according to a traditional approach using symbolic manipulation, resolution, and correction of lists of exercises on the blackboard. The data was gathered from the answers given by the students to a list of exercises, from which we were able to analyze and categorize the difficulties in algebra. The algebra learning situation B happened in two sixth-grade classes of public school in the city of Campinas, São Paulo, where we have acted both as researchers and teachers on the researched classes. Working activities proposed the development of the conceptual nexus of elementary algebra, such as fluency, variable, variation field, language, operationability and unity. Afterwards we invited the students to answer the same list of exercises used in situation A. We compared the difficulties found in both situations considering the same exercises. This comparison shows that the students in situation B found less difficulty to solve this list and there was a fewer occurrence of mistakes compared to situation A. This research allowed us to affirm that the learning situation B has brought a more significant understanding of the algebraic ideas related to the given exercises than the situation A, which considered a traditional learning approach / Mestrado / Educação Matematica / Mestre em Educação

In school algebra, using different methods including factorization to solve quadratic equations is one common teaching and learning topic at upper secondary school level. This study is about analyzing the algebra content related to solving quadratic equations and the method of factorization as presented in Swedish mathematics textbooks with subject matter content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) as analytical tools. Mathematics textbooks as educational resources and artefacts are widely used in classroom teaching and learning. What is presented in a textbook is often taught by teachers in the classroom. Similarly, what is missing from the textbook may not be presented by the teacher. The study is based on an assumption that pedagogical content knowledge is embedded in the subject content presented in textbooks. Textbooks contain both subject content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. The primary aim of the study is to explore what pedagogical content knowledge regarding solving quadratic equations that is embedded in mathematics textbooks. The secondary aim is to analyze the algebra content related to solving quadratic equations from the perspective of mathematics as a discipline in relation to algebra history. It is about what one can find in the textbook rather than how the textbook is used in the classroom. The study concerns a teaching perspective and is intended to contribute to the understanding of the conditions of teaching solving quadratic equations. The theoretical framework is based on Shulman’s concept pedagogical content knowledge and Mishra and Koehler’s concept content knowledge. The general theoretical perspective is based on Wartofsky’s artifact theory. The empirical material used in this study includes twelve mathematics textbooks in the mathematics B course at Swedish upper secondary schools. The study contains four rounds of analyses. The results of the first three rounds have set up a basis for a deep analysis of one selected textbook. The results show that the analyzed Swedish mathematics textbooks reflect the Swedish mathematics syllabus of algebra. It is found that the algebra content related to solving quadratic equations is similar in every investigated textbook. There is an accumulative relationship among all the algebra content with a final goal of presenting how to solve quadratic equations by quadratic formula, which implies that classroom teaching may focus on quadratic formula. Factorization method is presented for solving simple quadratic equations but not the general-formed quadratic equations. The study finds that the presentation of the algebra content related to quadratic equations in the selected textbook is organized by four geometrical models that can be traced back to the history of algebra. These four geometrical models are applied for illustrating algebra rules and construct an overall embedded teaching trajectory with five sub-trajectories. The historically related pedagogy and application of mathematics in both real world and pure mathematics contexts are the pedagogical content knowledge related to quadratic equations.

In this thesis I present new insights into aspects of Peter Guthrie Tait's life and work, derived principally from largely-unexplored primary source material: Tait's scrapbook, the Tait–Maxwell school-book and Tait's pocket notebook. By way of associated historical insights, I also come to discuss the innovative and far-reaching mathematics of the elusive Frenchman, C.-V. Mourey. P. G. Tait (1831–1901) F.R.S.E., Professor of Mathematics at the Queen's College, Belfast (1854–1860) and of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh (1860–1901), was one of the leading physicists and mathematicians in Europe in the nineteenth century. His expertise encompassed the breadth of physical science and mathematics. However, since the nineteenth century he has been unfortunately overlooked—overshadowed, perhaps, by the brilliance of his personal friends, James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879), Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805–1865) and William Thomson (1824–1907), later Lord Kelvin. Here I present the results of extensive research into the Tait family history. I explore the spiritual aspect of Tait's life in connection with The Unseen Universe (1875) which Tait co-authored with Balfour Stewart (1828–1887). I also reveal Tait's surprising involvement in statistics and give an account of his introduction to complex numbers, as a schoolboy at the Edinburgh Academy. A highlight of the thesis is a re-evaluation of C.-V. Mourey's 1828 work, La Vraie Théorie des quantités négatives et des quantités prétendues imaginaires, which I consider from the perspective of algebraic reform. The thesis also contains: (i) a transcription of an unpublished paper by Hamilton on the fundamental theorem of algebra which was inspired by Mourey and (ii) new biographical information on Mourey.