Dificuldades e desafios encontrados na resolução de situações-problema envolvendo a operação de divisão para alunos do ensino de jovens e adultos

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the difficulties and strategies of Adult and Youth Education (EJA) students in solving problem situations involving the division operation. The research, with a qualitative and descriptive-interpretative approach, was conducted with eight students from Cycle III of the second segment of EJA, in a public school located in the Metropolitan Region of João Pessoa – PB, Brazil. Data were collected through a test composed of seven contextualized questions designed to mobilize different representation registers. The analysis was grounded in Vergnaud’s Conceptual Fields Theory and Duval’s Theory of Semiotic Representation Registers. The results showed that most students were classified at Performance Level 1 (62.5%), characterized by partial solutions, conceptual errors, and difficulties in interpretation. Two students (25%) reached Level 2, demonstrating more consistent strategies, though still limited in terms of generalization, while only one student (12.5%) achieved Level 3, articulating calculation, context, and justification satisfactorily. Regarding representation registers, the numerical register was predominant, followed by natural language and figural representations, although conversions between registers were scarcely observed. It is concluded that conceptual and representational difficulties are interconnected and constitute a central challenge for mathematics teaching in adult education. The study highlights the need for pedagogical practices that value students’ daily experiences, encourage conversions between registers, and foster the progressive construction of operative invariants, thus enabling a more meaningful understanding of division.