MATHEMATICAL READING AND WRITING: CHALLENGES FOR THE TEACHING OF MATHEMATICS IN DISTANCE LEARNING

Abstract

The present work reports a case study whose scenery is a distance learning teacher training course for teachers of mathematics. For the effective development of the work, a theoretical construct was built, addressing issues inherent to distance learning and teaching and learning of mathematics. It took into consideration the epistemological assumption that the construction of mathematical knowledge, especially in distance learning environments, is related to mathematical reading and writing. Thus, we reinforce our theoretical construct at this stage. After the construction of problematizations inherent to distance learning and the teaching of mathematics related to the assumption above, we present the observations and analyses that were collected during the study. For its effectiveness, the written records of the forums conducted during the second semester of 2011 were analyzed. These records were the research corpus. The individuals involved were students, teachers and tutors, which together make the course participants’ network. We made the analyses in a qualitative approach, based on discursive textual analysis (MORAES and GALIAZZI, 2007). We found provisional findings on mathematical writing in virtual learning environments. Among these findings, we realized that mathematical writing can gain its own symbology within the conjuncture of course, differing from the one agreed by the books. On the other hand, it was observed that, when support allows it, the already known mathematical symbols that are used in other circumstances are employed. The preliminary results indicated should certainly be investigated and discussed by other researchers.

Key words: Mathematics; Distance learning; Mathematical literacy.