Conceptualizando o ensino exploratório da Matemática: Contributos da prática de uma professora do 3.º ciclo para a elaboração de um quadro de referência

Abstract

This study aims to understand the practice of inquiry-based teaching in Mathematics, with the overall goal of establishing a framework to identify and relate the intentions and actions of the teachers concerning their classroom practices. Based on the literature about this domain and the analysis of teachers’ practices from different school levels, this paper focuses on the practice of an expert mathematics teacher in one middle school lesson (7th grade). Data collection included classroom observation, video recording, documental analysis, and two interviews that were conducted with the teacher, before and after the lesson.

In the teacher’s practice we identify a wide repertoire of actions and intentions that fall under the perspective of inquiry-based teaching that we have come to characterize, but also stand out several different singularities that must be understood in the context in which that practice occurs. Data analysis suggests the teacher’s strong intentionality to support students in establishing connections with their previous learning and reinforcing transversal mathematical processes, which guide her actions at each step of the lesson. These results allow us to discuss about the added value a theoretical framework about inquiry-based teaching has for the research on this kind of practice and for teacher education.