O fazer modelagem matemática em um curso de licenciatura em química: análise de estratégias e ações

Abstract

This study presents results concerning the analysed subject: relations between Heuristic Strategies in the development of Mathematical Modelling activities and the phenomenological categories of Peircean Semiotics. To that end, theoretical assumptions of Mathematical Modelling were used as a pedagogical alternative proposed by Almeida, Silva and Vertuan (2012), as well as the Peircean Semiotics, more particularly, the phenomenological categories regarding the analysis of how this phenomenon is perceived by undergraduate Chemistry students. Therefore, this work brings a semiotic interpretation of students‟ Mathematical Modelling doing process by letting them show how the situational problem was solved in an autonomous way. In order to do so, Mathematical Modelling activities were created in the discipline of Differential and Integral Calculus I of the UTFPR Chemistry course. Upon doing activities of first, second and third moments of familiarizing, these activities collaborated with the development of the interpretative qualitative research, which resulted in the educational product entitled: Mathematical Modelling Activities for Bachelor‟s Degree in Teaching of Chemistry. The analysis of the signs produced and used by students allows to infer that there are first actions in the interaction phase and require broader Heuristic Strategies, such as material organization, along with second actions, when there is the embodiment of an idea and, thus, the transformation from natural language into mathematics, which mainly evokes the strategy “verify functional aspects”, and finally third actions, the link between quality and fact, in the development of the model, interpretation and validation of results. Compared to the others, the third category elicits more strategies, which enables an approximation between what the teacher explains and what the student fathoms.