From Work Tools to Didactic Resources for Mathematics Classes: Experiences in and for Technical Courses

Background: High school technical vocational education (Educacao Profissional Tecnica de Nivel Medio - EPTNM) is an educational modality provided by the LDB and responsible for the qualification of part of the workers at the national level. Objective: to articulate theoretical assumptions of mathematics education in pedagogical action with students of EPTNM, and discuss the role that work tools can play in mathematics education of students of technical courses integrated to high school. Design: qualitative research, approaching a bibliographic research. Settings and participants: 96 texts published in the national meetings of mathematics education proceedings from 2010 through 2019. Data collection and analysis: to collect the data, we downloaded the proceedings, identified the files containing specific descriptors, performed a reading located where those terms were used and then selected the articles that presented proposals or experiences related to the EPTNM. For data analysis, we started from gross units of information (excerpts from the articles) for the categories of information (defined by the concept of transparency, following the theoretical framework). Results: Based on the notion of transparency of didactic resources, we found that the visibility of the instruments gives tasks an interdisciplinary character, since students become familiar with working tools. On the other hand, the invisibility of resources is favourable to pedagogical action, mainly by promoting intellectual work from manual work. Conclusions: regardless of the level of transparency of the working instrument, its use as a didactic resource is recommended for mathematics education at EPTNM.