DIAGRAMMATIC REASONING IN MATHEMATICAL MODELLING ACTIVITIES IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Abstract

In this paper, we infer about the knowledge of students in a 9th grade class of Elementary School in the development of mathematical modelling activities. We understand that mathematical modelling is a didactic-pedagogical approach and that the construction of knowledge can be evidenced in diagrammatic reasoning, so we rely on peircean semiotics, more specifically on the diagrams produced by the students. The qualitative analysis subsidized in the triangulation process took into account as subjects eight students from the 9th grade of Elementary School at a private school in the north of Paraná, the diagrams constructed in the development of two modelling activities as the object, and the diagrammatic reasoning that emerged from activities as a phenomenon. The results allowed us to infer that the diagrammatic reasoning mobilized in the diagrams produced for the situations under study, whether to carry out simplifications or simulations, revealed that the students sought to implement mathematical knowledge already studied throughout the school year.