O Soroban como instrumento do ensino de matemática na educação básica

Abstract

This thesis presents the results of a study about the use of Soroban as an instrument for teaching elementary basic operations with natural numbers, which based the proposal of a mini course for teachers who work with mathematics teaching in basic level. The question that guides this study is: how can Soroban contribute to mathematics teaching in basic education, and how can it serve as a didactic resource for the teaching of fundamental operations of mathematics with natural numbers? We provide a short historical approach of Soroban and its development throughout the years. After this, the study presents Soroban as an instrument of calculation with all its elements, which results in the exhibition of fundamental operations of mathematics with natural numbers. We proposed a mini course as a product of Professional Master s degree aimed to teachers who work with Mathematics in basic education. We showed that Soroban can be an important instrument of help in the understanding of basic operations due to the fact that it allows results to be concrete and not abstract, which gives meaning to the mathematical learning of young students. Soroban is also important as a didactic instrument to be used by teachers in classroom, because it promotes a ludic teaching, which results in a stronger interest and attention of students who are beginners in mathematics. Soroban minimizes the level of abstraction, which is a characteristic of science, and enhances students experience. What must be observed, however, is the difficulty of finding Soroban in most of the schools, as well as a higher difficulty in using the instrument to solve operations of multiplication and division of natural numbers.