Reforma curricular de 1989: a relevância do cálculo mental no ensino da Matemática
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2015
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Nas décadas de 70 e 80 do século XX, assistiu-se, em Portugal, a um período marcado por mudanças políticas, económicas e culturais que tiveram eco em 1986, com a criação da Comissão de Reforma do Sistema Educativo e com a aprovação da Lei de Bases do Sistema Educativo. Neste contexto, a escola passou a ser perspetivada como uma comunidade dotada de autonomia para gerir as políticas educativas de acordo com as suas características particulares mas foi a reforma curricular, que culminou com a elaboração de novos programas para as diferentes disciplinas – homologados no início dos anos 90 – que assumiu uma importância central no processo de reforma do sistema educativo português.
No caso da disciplina de Matemática, verifica-se que os novos currículos foram permeáveis à ideologia relativa ao campo da Educação Matemática, vigente à data a nível internacional, que se posicionava em duas frentes: na perspetivação do aluno como agente ativo no processo de ensino e aprendizagem; e na resolução de problemas como uma das atividades principais da Matemática. Paralelamente, as novas tecnologias, nomeadamente a calculadora, foram introduzidas no programa e o cálculo mental passou a ser abordado com especial atenção ao ser considerado como primeira etapa na obtenção de um resultado. Pretendia-se assim que os alunos desenvolvessem a sua capacidade de estimação, utilizassem as propriedades das operações como um objetivo útil e lidassem com o número como parte de uma estrutura e não o encarassem apenas como um símbolo de quantidade. Ainda que não seja referido de forma explícita, a noção de sentido do número está, portanto, subliminarmente presente nos programas.
Não obstante os avanços de modernização curricular alcançados, a relevância atribuída aos programas acabou por sobrepor-se à ênfase que deveria ter sido igualmente concedida à escola e ao professor. Devido à falta de acompanhamento a estas duas entidades, verificou-se que o desenvolvimento do cálculo mental e do sentido do número acabou por não se concretizar plenamente já que, se por um lado as escolas não estavam preparadas para as exigências dos novos programas – nomeadamente no que diz respeito à disponibilização de materiais didáticos e computadores – por outro, os professores continuaram a aplicar as metodologias de outrora – que primavam pela mecanização e memorização – por falta de orientação e formação profissional específicas.
In the 70s and 80s of the twentieth century, Portugal went through a period marked by political, economic and cultural changes which were echoed in 1986 with the creation of the Reform Commission on Education and with the approval of the Education System Basic Law. School became a stand-alone community capable of managing education policies according to its particular characteristics but it was the curriculum reform, which led to the development and implementation of new subjects’ curricula in the early nineties that gained major importance in the Portuguese educational system reform. Regarding to Mathematics, the new curricula mirrored the international Mathematics Education’s ideology at the time which was focused on the student, as an active participant of his own learning process, and on problem solving as a key mathematical activity. New technologies, such as the calculator, were also introduced in the programs and mental calculation started to be approached with more attention since it was considered the first resource to get a calculation done. This way, students should be able to mature their ability to estimate, to use operations’ properties as a useful goal and to deal with numbers as a part of a structure and not only as a quantity symbol. Even without an explicit mention, number sense is thus subliminally present in the programs. Despite curricular modernization achievements, the relevance to the programs turned out to override the emphasis that should have been also granted to schools and teachers. Eventually, due to insufficient guidance to those entities, mental arithmetic and number sense goals were not fully accomplished. Schools weren’t prepared for the demands of the new programs – especially due to the shortage of teaching materials and computers – and teachers, who lacked specific training concerning the new teaching challenges, continued to practice outdated methodologies, emphasizing the memorization and mechanization of rules and procedures.
In the 70s and 80s of the twentieth century, Portugal went through a period marked by political, economic and cultural changes which were echoed in 1986 with the creation of the Reform Commission on Education and with the approval of the Education System Basic Law. School became a stand-alone community capable of managing education policies according to its particular characteristics but it was the curriculum reform, which led to the development and implementation of new subjects’ curricula in the early nineties that gained major importance in the Portuguese educational system reform. Regarding to Mathematics, the new curricula mirrored the international Mathematics Education’s ideology at the time which was focused on the student, as an active participant of his own learning process, and on problem solving as a key mathematical activity. New technologies, such as the calculator, were also introduced in the programs and mental calculation started to be approached with more attention since it was considered the first resource to get a calculation done. This way, students should be able to mature their ability to estimate, to use operations’ properties as a useful goal and to deal with numbers as a part of a structure and not only as a quantity symbol. Even without an explicit mention, number sense is thus subliminally present in the programs. Despite curricular modernization achievements, the relevance to the programs turned out to override the emphasis that should have been also granted to schools and teachers. Eventually, due to insufficient guidance to those entities, mental arithmetic and number sense goals were not fully accomplished. Schools weren’t prepared for the demands of the new programs – especially due to the shortage of teaching materials and computers – and teachers, who lacked specific training concerning the new teaching challenges, continued to practice outdated methodologies, emphasizing the memorization and mechanization of rules and procedures.
Descrição
Dissertação de Mestrado em Ensino de Matemática no 3º Ciclo do Ensino Básico e Secundário
Palavras-chave
Cálculo mental , Calculadora , Reforma curricular , 1989