Banca de DEFESA: FABIANY LAIS GOMES DE PONTES

ANALYSIS OF MEANINGS PRODUCED IN A DIDACTIC SEQUENCE ON LOGARITHMS USING THE MODEL OF SEMANTIC FIELDS (MCS)

History of Mathematics Education; Teaching Logarithms; Conceptions of logarithms; Teacher training; Theoretical Model of Semantic Fields.

This master's thesis deals with the application of activities on the evolution of the concept of logarithm in Brazilian textbooks of the last century. The central question of the research was: what are the meanings that can be produced from a didactic sequence involving the history of teaching logarithms in Brazil? Data collection took place in a real teaching context: classes in the mathematics teacher training course at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil).We were inspired, therefore, by the methodology of action research to collect data (oral and written) that were analyzed according to concepts present in the Theoretical Model of Semantic Fields. Our methodology was based on action research and the collected data (oral and written) were analyzed using the Theoretical Model of Semantic Fields. In this way, we observed that the research participants could see two mathematical concepts, that is, two logarithms, given the different form of their approach in the chosen textbooks. In addition, students realized that logarithms are now far from their historical arithmetic constitution, approaching a more algebraic definition.