Abstract

LLANOS, Viviana Carolina  and  OTERO, Maria Rita. Argumentación Matemática en los libros de la Enseñanza Secundaria: un análisis descriptivo de las características de los libros de texto y de la Argumentación. Rev. electrón. investig. educ. cienc. [online]. 2009, vol.4, n.1, pp.37-50. ISSN 1850-6666.

This work describes and analyzes possible modifications in the mathematical Argumentation in one hundred and thirty seven (N=137) textbooks for secondary school students published between 1940 and 2007. The notion of Argumentation proposed by Leitão (2001; 2007) is adopted and used to describe the characteristics of the textbooks. The analysis of the textbooks facilitates the observation of different ways to base on and conceive Mathematics according to the year of edition. This change is described according to Traditions of the Mathematical in the sense proposed by Klimovsky and Boido (2005). The mostly used and representative textbooks in the secondary school in the Argentinean Educational System are selected by an intentional sample. Taking into account categories and subcategories of analysis, a qualitative description is made of the characteristics of textbooks and of the Argumentation. Assuming a broad notion of argumentation, it may be stated that there would be modifications in the form to initiate it, in the types of reasoning and in the situations proposed in relation to the way Mathematics are conceived. Besides, there are changes in the quantity and quality of images used in recent editions. Some considerations about how external representations would affect Mathematical Argumentation are made. On the other hand, if the explicit confrontation of points of view is assumed as a necessary condition to define argumentation, it is concluded that neither of the textbooks would be argumentative. This leads to reflect about the proportion between informative and strictly argumentative aspects that are involved in a textbook.

Keywords : Mathematical argumentation; Scholastic text books; Construction of knowledge.

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