Aprendizagem de matemática financeira no ensino médio: uso de planilha eletrônica em uma abordagem construcionista

Abstract

Financial Mathematics plays a significant role in everyone's life, making it important to find ways to help students understand it, thus facilitating development in this area. In the face of this perspective, the following problem arises: how can high school students significantly learn the concepts and procedures of simple and compound interest when developing a financial project using an electronic spreadsheet? With the aim of analyzing the process of learning concepts related to Financial Mathematics by high school students, through an approach based on Constructionism and the development of financial projects in electronic spreadsheets, this research highlights the importance of learning knowledge and the underuse of Technologies Digital Information and Communication (TDICs) related to students' difficulties in learning Financial Mathematics, specifically in simple and compound interest. The research adopts a qualitative approach, characterized as a Case Study. The unit of analysis is composed of four groups of students of the 2nd year of high school, participants of the discipline of Mathematics II in a Public School of High School in Full Time in the city of Martinópole/CE. The study is divided into three stages, with activities taking place in the school's computer lab. In the first stage, the instruments for data collection and analysis were prepared, in addition to the digital equipment. In the second stage, data collection was carried out through the implementation of the Didactic Sequence (SD) composed of six classes, and the application of the initial and final questionnaires. In the third stage, data analysis was carried out through the application of the five stages of Discursive Textual Analysis (DTA): unitarization, categorization, description, interpretation and argumentation. Data were compared using methodological triangulation with the definition of four categories: financial mathematics, simple interest, compound interest and interest rate. Before applying the SD, it was found that students only memorized Financial Mathematics formulas. After the intervention, a significant learning process was observed, with the application of concepts and procedures in real situations. They developed more academically appropriate definitions of simple and compound interest, and understood the importance of converting interest rate calculations. The results showed a constructionist learning, with interactions between students and teachers, as well as among the students themselves, using digital technology as a tool for expanding knowledge, thus contributing to the understanding of Financial Mathematics. It was concluded that the research helped students to understand the concepts of simple and compound interest, in addition to becoming familiar with the digital spreadsheet tool. Based on these data, in the future, the intention is to present the SD to the mathematics teachers at the school where the researcher works, seeking its implementation in all classes. It is intended to share the DS in local training and global meetings of teachers, promoting a wide dissemination of this significant approach to teaching simple and compound interest, contributing to the training of teachers in relation to innovative methods and the sharing of practices that help in the Mathematics teaching.