Mathematics teaching in a hospital school: Principles of Conceptual Fields Theory.

Abstract

Objective: to identify how the principles of Gerard Vergnaud's Theory of Conceptual Fields (TCC) are present in mathematics classes given to students in the 1st and 2nd years of Elementary School who are undergoing prolonged hospital treatment. Methods: Exploratory research with a mixed character. The contents of 171 Mathematics classes taught by teachers at the hospital school for students in the 1st and 2nd years of Elementary School throughout 2019 were analyzed. The report of the classes was obtained from the database of the hospital school. The analysis process was performed using the content analysis concepts described by Bardin. Results: The data exploration process led to the creation of approximately 18 intermediate categories that, after being analyzed under the principle of the Theory of Conceptual Fields, were later reduced to four main categories, named Situations of History, Situations of Variety, Predicative Form and Invariants Operatives, which make up the TCC Conclusions: Vergnaud's Theory of Conceptual Fields was observed in reports on the development of skills for comparing natural numbers, constructing concepts, calculating and solving problems involving addition, in addition to comparing quantities, as well as as, in valuing the use of oral language to expose the resolutions of exercises and knowledge of their students/patients. Which indicates that the predicative and operative forms of knowledge are present.