A construção do conceito de número pelos alunos dos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental por meio de jogos.

Abstract

The dissertation – linked to the research line in Mathematics Education of the Graduate Program in Science Education and Mathematics Education (PPGCEM) and to the Research Group Interfaces in Mathematics Education (GPIEM) – this dissertation addresses the intentional and planned use of games in the development of the concept of number in the early years of Elementary Education. The study is grounded in Genetic Epistemology, which views the student as an active participant in the construction of knowledge and the teacher as a mediator who creates situations that foster such construction. From this perspective, we sought to answer the following research question: How can the intentional and planned implementation of games support the construction of the concept of number among second-grade elementary school students? The general objective was to understand how the intentional and planned use of games can contribute to the development of the concept of number in second-grade students. To investigate this phenomenon, we conducted a qualitative field study in a public school in the municipality of Cascavel, Paraná, Brazil, in 2024, with participants enrolled in a second-grade class. Three game-based activities were implemented with the aim of fostering the development of the concepts of one-to-one correspondence, conservation, equality, classification, class inclusion, seriation, hierarchical inclusion, ordering and quantification – concepts essential to the formation of the notion of number. In these implementations, we adopted Jean Piaget’s Clinical Method to investigate children’s thinking and reasoning during gameplay. Data analysis was interpretive in nature, aiming to understand the meanings attributed to the actions, speech, and behaviors of the four participants analyzed. The results revealed evidence of the construction of these concepts among the participants, with variations depending on each child’s level of assimilation. We conclude that intentionally planned and structured games represent a valuable pedagogical strategy for mathematics teachers seeking to support students in building the concept of number.