An essay on the conceptions of Mathematics teachers: methodological possibilities and a research exercise

• Autor(a) principal: Garnica, Antonio Vicente Marafioti
• Data de Publicação: 2008
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Educação e Pesquisa
• Texto Completo: https://www.revistas.usp.br/ep/article/view/28102
• topic: Concepções; Formação de professores; Educação Matemática; Livros didáticos de Matemática; Conceptions; Teacher education; Mathematical education; Mathematics textbooks

This article has as its main theme the conceptions held by Mathematics teachers. By understanding the term "conception" on the basis of Peirce's pragmatism, a set of methodological parameters are produced - denominated "indirect method" - to be applied in the study of Mathematics teachers' conceptions. In summary, we want to investigate teachers' conceptions asking them not about their beliefs, but about their practices. After presenting the foundations of this indirect approach, and of making explicit its qualitative nature, the study proceeds to exemplify it with an exercise of this "indirect method", a study about the criteria used by teachers to select textbooks for their classes, thereby dealing with the conceptions of Mathematics and of its teaching and learning that such criteria disclose. Based on testimonies of Mathematics teachers, the study suggests that teachers act with some independence when they choose the materials to be used in their classes. At the same time, they draw from a wide range of textbooks, disregarding the specificities of each work and the approaches and perspectives espoused by their authors. Although they submit to textbooks - regarded as a legitimate and reliable source - teachers subvert them, trying to making them adequate to what they consider correct. From this observation, some of the teachers' conceptions can be highlighted: the pupil is usually evaluated and classified according to their deficiencies with respect to the contents. From this position follows the high value placed upon the logical precedence of the contents, their linear presentation, and the defense of "prerequisites" that would make teaching possible and, consequently, imply the legitimacy of predominantly expository classes.