MATHEMATICS LITERACY AND PROBLEM SOLVING SITUATIONS IN ‘PROVINHA BRASIL’

Abstract

This article has as its focus the analysis of literacy conceptions present in problem-solving situations in Maths from ‘Provinha Brasil’ for the 2nd year of Secondary School and promotes reflections on the relationship between literacy and mathematics literacy. Its aim is to distinguish the concept of mathematics alphabetization and mathematics literacy in problem-solving questions. The adopted theoretical references come from authors who discuss the literacy issue and also mathematics literacy; concepts of autonomous and ideological literacy and the parallel between mathematics alphabetization and mathematics literacy. We reflect on problem-solving conceptions and also which of these conceptions adopted by the theorists refer to numeracy or mathematics literacy. In order to carry out the documents analysis, we collected the five problem-solving questions exactly as they were proposed to the students, and analyzed how the literacy conceptions are evident in the problem solving proposals from the document. The results reveal that the discourse presented in the 2011 Education Development Plan (Plano de Desenvolvimento da Educação – PDE) regarding problem solving is not applied in practice, as the analyzed questions refer exclusively to activities which reveal mathematics numeracy, not involving the concept of literacy.

Keywords: Mathematics literacy; ‘Provinha Brasil de Matemática’; problem solving situations.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14244/19827199849