Semiotic Registers of first grade equations: an analysis of Middle School textbooks

Abstract

Does the approach to the concept of first grade equations in one variable presented in Middle School textbooks allow the access and the learning of the mathematical object based on the perspectives of the Theory of Registers of Semiotic Representation (TRSR)? To answer this question, textbooks were analyzed to verify if its use of representations on first grade equations content, in the seventh grade of Middle School, points to the same direction of the TRSR principles. Thereby, we made bibliographic research in three Mathematics seventh grade textbooks, listed in the PNLD 2017. The analysis of the textbooks was made in conjunction with the TRSR, of Raymond Duval, which indicates that in the learning of Mathematics the comprehension of concepts has a direct relation with the coordination of a mathematical object’s representations. Then we analyzed the semiotic representations of the first grade equations presented in each textbook and how those, as well as the cognitives processes of the theory, were used. The results show that the use of a semiotic register of representations could be better addressed, making that the textbook could be much more useful to the teaching and learning process.