Os diversos conflitos observados em alunos de licenciatura num curso de álgebra: identificação e análise

Abstract

In this work, the learning conflicts are investigated that emerge when students of degree in Mathematics are ahead of a first course of Abstract Algebra. Throughout a semester we follow twelve pupils, undergraduates in Mathematics, during the lessons of disciplines Algebra I, whose summary contemplates the ring concepts, ideals, fields and polynomials. The study it was based on the constituent processes of the Advanced Mathematical Thinking, on the theory of the conceptual image and definition and on the levels of sophistication of the mathematical thinking - procedure, process and procept. Other theoretical subsidies had come with the survey of historical aspects of Algebra as Science and as discipline curricular of the Mathematical Education. The direct contact with the group during the lessons, the application of questionnaires and the comment of the evaluations makes possible the collection of the data of the research. Identified the learning difficulties, we search discutiz them it the light of the interactions between the formal definition of the mathematical object and the conceptual images that the pupils had formed of this object. To the end, we present a categorization of the analyzed conflicts on the basis of the understandings of the studied phenomenon.