Learning Through Problem Solving In a Rural Community School

Abstract

The present article shows the results of a research conducted with fifth grade students from Rural Community Primary Municipal School “Pe. Fulgêncio do Menino Jesus”, aiming to investigate how students’ learning process is developed when the methodology of Mathematics Teaching-learning-assessment through Problem Solving - RP is used. The data were built through document analysis, and they were registered in audio recordings, photos and field diary, concerning situations related to resolution of two generator problems involving length measures and fractions in the learning context. We took into account the generator topics from the school planning, which uses the Pedagogy of Alternation in its didactic and pedagogical organization. The research data, of qualitative approach, were submitted to a discursive textual analysis from the written registrations of problem solving, as well as the other collected data. Results reveal that the students’ understanding and learning of mathematical concepts/contents were developed in an atmosphere of argumentation, validation, reflection and identification of hypotheses of resolutions that were coherent to the proposed problems.