Conhecimentos probabilísticos de professoras dos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental

Abstract

We understand that there have been significant changes regarding the teaching of Probability in the early years of Elementary School based on the National Common Curricular Base. Greater visibility of the theme and recognition of the importance of teaching it from the 1st year of Elementary School onwards, in some way, endorse our thinking and, even if slowly, seek to incorporate global trends regarding the teaching of Probability at school level. This alteration impacts on the work of the teacher who teaches mathematics and, consequently, Probability. It is precisely in this context that we seek to investigate what probabilistic knowledge is revealed by pedagogical teachers of Elementary School (initial years) of a public teaching network, we consider the specific knowledge for teaching as a characteristic of the teacher, from the perspective of teaching professionalism. The research subjects were thirteen female teachers from the early years of Elementary School in the public network of the city of Sobral, Ceará. We used the qualitative research modality, making use of interviews, questionnaires, audio and video recordings and interactions from a training group, which, in an inductive way, considering the subjectivity of this researcher, enabled the construction and collection of data to gather information/results. We used the theoretical model Mathematics Teacher's Specialized Knowledge (MTSK) as an analytical framework to obtain a view of the probabilistic knowledge revealed by the teachers in the data generation and collection processes. Through our research, we inferred that when probabilistic knowledge was analyzed both in relation to conceptual/content aspects and in relation to pedagogical aspects for teaching, the teachers revealed a scarce knowledge of Probability. Some conceptual deficiencies of Mathematics important for the teaching of Probability were also noticed. We conjecture the teacher's formative trajectory – weakened initial formation in Mathematics and absent initial and continued formation in Probability – and the non-effectiveness of teaching Probability with her/his students – due to the absence of the theme in large-scale assessments, as causes that contributed and contribute to the unveiled scenario.