A RE-READING OF SOLUTIONS TO A MATHEMATICS TASK USING TABLES

Abstract

This text presents a reinterpretation of solutions to a math task that makes up a diagnostic test that was applied to first-year high school students at a public school in Paraná. The act of examining students' written records in light of the Written Production Analysis assessment strategy can be understood as an investigative activity that integrates the assessment process, which can characterize the assessment of school learning in mathematics as a research practice. Before the rereading, references on learning assessment and analysis of written production were studied. A five-question test was developed and administered, including one question linked to a descriptor provided in 9th-grade mathematics matrices for external assessments. The productions were read. The choice to use these descriptors was made considering that, at times, the practice of assessing learning in the mathematics classroom is confused with preparation for external assessments, always striving for an ideal result. The 9th-grade matrix was chosen because it is the school year already completed by the students. The solutions presented by the students were analyzed based on an initial correction, description, and classification of the strategies they used. By rereading the data, it is possible to infer that the students developed skills related to the descriptor "Solve problems involving information presented in tables and/or graphs," and that most performed the task using direct multiplication of the presented values, while others simply read the data. It was also possible to identify that some students used the multiplication operation with the addition of their results, which led to the expected resolution of the task.