CONTINUING TRAINING ANCHORED IN THE BAR MODEL: MULTI-STRATEGIES IN ALGEBRA TEACHING

Abstract

This text aims to present and discuss the potential of the Bar Model, as a trigger for multi-strategies for solving mathematical problems, possible contributions to the teaching and learning process in the transition from Arithmetic to Algebra and to expand the teaching repertoire in Continuing Training. With a qualitative research approach, a Training Action was implemented with eleven teachers who teach mathematics in the Final Years of Elementary School, in which the teachers learned about the Bar Model strategy combined with four steps for problem solving of Pólya (2006). Based on the Model of Semantic Fields (MSF), we carried out a plausible reading of the solutions developed by the teachers, the teachers' speeches regarding the potential of the Bar Model as a trigger for the development of various problem-solving strategies in the transition from Arithmetic to Algebra, as an expander of the teaching repertoire and we evaluate implications of its adoption in Elementary School classrooms. As a result, we observed that the use of the Barras Model had the potential to provide, in teacher training, multi-strategies for problem solving, an opportunity to expand the teaching repertoire and, when applied in the classroom, as a way of modifying the way students and teachers solve problems, contributes to creating a space for negotiating the meaning of using letters in mathematical expressions.