The Language of Sets in Mathematics Teaching: a Case Study in an Elementary School

Abstract

The issue of the language of sets served as a means of articulating the new mathematical rationality at the time of the Modern Mathematics Movement. Considering a segment of that subject, we analysed the representational language of mathematics in elementary school teaching. The research was carried out in the Colégio de Aplicação da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina and the instrument analysed was the first syllabus used at that school. Through the analyses of this syllabus, we noted that the modern mathematics guidelines are present for the elementary school teaching although they arose after the international movement. Particularly, set theory serves as a means and support for teaching and learning, thus contributing to the continuation of the modern mathematics ensemble of ideas. This study allows the questioning of a history of marks, evidences and traces of a new mathematics linked to the teaching and to the ways of learning that nowadays are mixed so well in stipulated codes and signals that became natural in the teaching of that subject. Keywords: Mathematics Language. Set Theory. Modern Mathematics. Elementary School Teaching. History of the Education and of the Teaching of Mathematics.