Representação semiótica: uma perspectiva para a construção do conceito de número na educação infantil

Abstract

This research was an investigation in the mathematical education field and it intended to answer the following guiding question: Does the Theory of Registers of Semiotic Representation contribute to the construction of the concept of number? Its general objective was to investigate the role of the semiotic representation register in the construction of the concept of number by children in early childhood education. The theoretical basis was Jean Piaget (concept of number) and Raymond Duval (Theory of Registers of Semiotic Representation), among other researchers like Carvalho, Danyluk, Kamii, Luria, Macedo, Machado and A. Sinclair. Our methodology used a qualitative approach. By field research (participant observation technique), we sought direct contact with the children, by an interventionist and motivational attitude in register s processes. Our didactical and methodological resources were the games discussed among GEPAEM research group. The registers produced by such games served as the basis for data analysis. The subjects of this research were approximately five years old children in public early childhood education at Volta Redonda city. This research was justified by the researcher s professional trajectory and by the lack of studies about the Theory of Registers of Semiotic Representation in early childhood educations and its possible contribution to the construction of the concept of number. The observed results indicated the utilization of maternal language representation as a starting point to the mathematical object presentation and as the formation of the first representations and transformation into another register inside the same semiotic system (operations of treatment). In this perspective, the semiotic representations contributed to the interiorization of the mental representations (noesis) which, per established relations, enabled the conceptual apprehension of the mathematical object in a given interaction.