Banca de DEFESA: LARISSA BENTO DE SOUZA

RECREATIONAL MATHEMATICS IN CLASSES IN THE FINAL YEARS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Mathematics Teaching. Recreational Mathematics. Motivation. Activities Notebook.

This research studies aspects related to motivation in the school context. Considering it relevant for the good development of students, it presents Recreational Mathematics (RM) as a methodological alternative in Mathematics classes. The research's guiding question is: how can the use of an activity book aimed at RM, worked systematically and regularly in a primary school class in the final years, influence the students' attitude towards mathematics classes? As a general objective of the research, we aimed to evaluate the perception of elementary school students in their final years about mathematics classes when RM is regularly used. To achieve the general objective, we established the following specific objectives: to investigate the behavior of students during math classes before and after the introduction of RM through the activity notebook (Educational Product); examine questionnaires related to students' perception of the mathematics class before the insertion of RM; study the potential of RM for the mathematics classroom; develop an RM activities notebook to be applied in a 7th grade elementary school class (Educational Product). For this qualitative study, data were collected through field notes, audio recordings, questionnaires and student assignment sheets. Therefore, we carried out observations in the classroom to analyze the behavior of students during math classes before, during and after the application of the prepared activity book, as well as applying perception questionnaires to understand the students' view of math classes. and, also, we inserted in the school routine the use of an activity book during a period of ten weeks of the regular school year. In order to analyze the collected data, we carefully read the transcriptions and field notebook notes, identifying: positive characteristics of mathematics classes, negative characteristics of mathematics classes, positive characteristics of RM insertion, negative characteristics of RM insertion. As a result, we point out that the insertion of RM in the classroom provided changes in the attitudes and perceptions of some students and a significant increase in the number of those who actively participated in classes and involved themselves in the proposed tasks was noticed. We conclude that the insertion of systematic RM in the classroom has the potential to awaken students' interest/motivation in mathematics and can contribute to help teaching practice.