Gestos, sinais e esquemas de aprendizes surdos na multiplicação

Abstract

The acknowledgement of all sorts of schemes that support students’ cognitive activity can help teachers in the analysis of mathematical practices. This study’s objective was to identify schemes used by three deaf students, users of the Brazilian Sign Language in the calculation of multiplication, from the scheme concept based on Gérard Vergnaud’s Conceptual Fields Theory and David McNeill’s typology of gestures. The analyzed tasks showed that all students had the matching signal-to-signal or signal-to-toe schema, coordinating it with counting, but just two students presented the counting starting from procedure. Their schemes allow the simultaneous articulation of signs and gestures, and gestures extrapolated the communication function and integrate the cognitive action of these students.