Early-Career Mathematics Teachers’ Knowledge in the Multiplicative Conceptual Field

Resumo

Background: Operations with natural numbers are highlighted in the first five years of elementary school, according to the prescribed and practised curricula. According to the recently prescribed curricula, the mathematics teacher should return to this theme in the 6th grade so that the students consolidate and expand this knowledge. This fact can constitute a great challenge for the teacher who may not have had adequate training to teach it, ignoring the work done in the initial years. Objectives: to investigate mathematics teachers’ didactic and curriculum knowledge about teaching problems involving multiplication and division - the multiplicative conceptual field, according to the National Curriculum Parameters and Vergnaud. Design: the principles of a qualitative study carried out with five mathematics beginning teachers, ex-scholarship holders of the Institutional Scholarship for Teaching Initiation Program (Pibid) of the Degree in Mathematics at the Federal University of Sergipe. Data collection and analysis: Data collection took place through interviews and protocols answered by teachers during the interviews; regarding beginning teachers, the study had as theoretical references the works of Huberman and Garcia and that of Ball, Thames, and Phelps about the necessary teachers’ knowledge for teaching. Results: It was possible to conclude that the teachers in the process of teaching the multiplicative conceptual field did not master the didactic knowledge essential for teaching operations. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the teachers’ knowledge base for teaching operations.