Desenvolvimento do sentido de número no ensino básico: um estudo no 7.º ano de escolaridade

Abstract

Numbers and quantitative information appear in various aspects of a citizen’s life and the exercise of citizenship requires skills in knowledge and dexterity with numbers. This reality presents school mathematics with new challenges towards the teaching and learning of numbers and operations including the development of students’ number sense. The aim of the study presented in this article was to gather evidence about the students’ number sense in grades 7 to 9, more specifically about th grade students’ sense of rational number. It is a research that has sought to take into account the wide and complex network of skills that characterize number sense as well as the sub-constructs that define rational numbers.

The study has showed that students attach little meaning to numbers, operations and contexts, expressing difficulty to interpret situations as well as to define appropriate strategies. They have revealed difficulty in understanding rational numbers written by means of other representing forms besides the fraction or decimal form. Most students also showed few comparing and ordering abilities of rational numbers.