Explorando as regularidades dos números decimais com o auxilio da calculadora

Abstract

This work aims to investigate the contribution of the study of regularities in the process of teaching multiplication and division of decimals, with the help of the calculator. The research had a qualitative approach and was a case study. It was carried out in a high school class of a public school located in the municipality of Mamanguape / PB. Twenty-four students participated in the initial diagnostic phase, and 30 students participated in the intervention stage, divided into 15 pairs for the activities. We used as theoretical reference the works of Van de Walle (2009), Espinosa (2009), Mendonça (2001), among others, besides the National Curricular Parameters (BRAZIL, 1998). The results did not reach the expectations of the research, because in most of the activities these results did not correspond to the expected answers. Considering that in the initial diagnosis the students also presented considerable difficulty in the operations with the decimal numbers we were led to conclude that the results obtained in the experiment may not have been reached due to these presented difficulties. In addition, the results obtained may not have been positive because it is a one-off activity performed in only two classroom hours, due to the students' difficulty in dealing with the calculator, the lack of habit to use and difficulty in interpreting the questions . Therefore, we recommend that other experiments with higher load-times be performed so that students can become familiar with this type of activity and arrive at more specific conclusions about regularities in operations with decimal numbers.