O ensino de frações por meio do cubo mágico

Abstract

When faced with the content of fractions the students present great difficulty of understanding with regard to the content (CAMPOS; MAGINA; NUNES, 2006). In this context, it becomes a challenge for teachers to find methods and methodologies that facilitate understanding. Based on this, the motivating problem of this research was to verify if “Is it possible to elaborate a proposal of teaching fractions in a playful way?”. For this, the study had as objective to find elements that subsidize the use of the magic cube in the teaching of fractions using Potentially Meaningful Teaching Units – UEPS (MOREIRA, 2011b). The first part includes a study on the History of the Magic Cube and also some experiences of its use as a teaching tool. It then presents some elements and concepts related to the teaching of fractions, presenting how content has been approached in some textbooks and also by teachers, detecting possible flaws and gaps in the teaching and learning process. It follows on the methodology of the Potentially Meaningful Teaching Units – UEPS that aim at Meaningful Learning. Finally, it proposes Potentially Significant Teaching Units – UEPS for the teaching of fractions. Due to its methodological procedures based on a qualitative research, a bibliographic inquiry was carried out on the use of the Magic Cube in the teaching and learning process in the Qualis Platform, CAPES Thesis and Dissertation Bank and the Google search engine. This search presented few publications which made research justifiable. The Magic Cube can be used as a potentially meaningful tool not only for fractions teaching, but also for other mathematical contents and, in addition, presents interesting usability for inclusive classes. The research can be carried out in the future by applying the presented proposal followed by an analysis of the results obtained.