A semiotic analysis of elementary students’ perceptions of mathematics during a mathematical modeling activity

Abstract:

In this paper, we examine the signs produced during the development of a modeling activity and how 9th-grade elementary school students perceive mathematics. Our reflections were based on mathematical modeling as a pedagogical alternative, as well as Peirce’s semiotic perception theory. We have focused on the written, spoken, and gestured signs of seven students from a private school in Paraná State, Brazil. From a semiotic perspective, we demonstrated that students use gestures to refer to a mathematical object and simplifications to approximate a real-life situation in a mathematical context, which allows them to perform a mathematization using their knowledge. When confronted with a real-world situation, we concluded that the students who created the activity perceive mathematics in a distinct and shared way.

Keywords:
Mathematics education; Elementary school; Semiotics; Mathematical knowledge