Application of direct proportionality to the resolution of an everyday situation by prospective primary school teachers

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23925/1983-3156.2021v23i2p076-098

Keywords:

Direct proportionality, Prospective teachers, Primary school

Abstract

This article studies how prospective primary school teachers understand the application of the concept of direct proportionality to the resolution of an everyday situation, when one or two expressions of direct proportionality simultaneously are required. Seventy-two students from the 1st year of a basic education degree course at a university in the north of Portugal participated in the study. The data were obtained through the application of a questionnaire, covering the concepts of ratio, proportion, and direct proportionality. In this work, only one of the various tasks of the questionnaire is explored, the one that refers to the application of direct proportionality to the resolution of a daily problem-situation. In terms of the main results obtained, we highlight a better performance in the situation whose resolution requires the use of only one expression of direct proportionality, which decreases much when the situation required the simultaneous use of two expressions of direct proportionality and, even more, when the inversion of arithmetic operations was added. Hence, the present study stresses the need to confront the prospective teachers with situations whose resolution requires the simultaneous application of more than one expression of direct proportionality.

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Author Biography

José António Fernandes, Universidade do Minho

Departamento de Estudos Integrados de Literacia, Didáctica e Supervisão

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Published

2021-09-01

How to Cite

FERNANDES, J. A. Application of direct proportionality to the resolution of an everyday situation by prospective primary school teachers. Educação Matemática Pesquisa, São Paulo, v. 23, n. 2, p. 076–098, 2021. DOI: 10.23925/1983-3156.2021v23i2p076-098. Disponível em: https://revistas.pucsp.br/index.php/emp/article/view/53451. Acesso em: 22 nov. 2024.