External Evaluation of the ProJovem Program: the Case of Areas and Volumes

Abstract

The objective of this study was to analyze the behavior of students in the ProJovem Program in the solution of items on the National External Examination , carried out in 2007. The mathematical subjects considered were area and volume. In addition to the students’ answers, praxiological analysis the Students’ Program Manual on these topics was also carried out of. The results, in addition to showing very poor performance on the part of the students, also show that they have many difficulties in constructing meanings for the statement of the problems. It can be noted that they generally do not make an effort to construct these meanings. In fact, whenever possible, they privilege the strategy of effecting an operation with the numerical data of the problem. One hypothesis for such difficulties might be in the work developed in the Students’ Program Manual, as the results of the praxiological analysis show that the elaboration and systematization of the techniques students are expected to use to carry out the different types of tasks are left to the students themselves. Key words: Mathematics Education. ProJovem. Praxiology. Areas. Volumes. Evaluation.