ASPECTOS DA LINGUAGEM E DO PENSAMENTO ALGÉBRICO MANIFESTADOS POR ESTUDANTES DO 6º ANO EM UM EPISÓDIO DE ENSINO ASPECTS OF ALGEBRAIC THINKING MANIFESTED BY 6TH YEAR STUDENTS IN A TEACHING EXPERIMENT

This article reports part of a master’s research aimed to identify, analyze and discuss aspects of algebraic thinking and language manifested by students of the 6 th grade of elementary school to solve problems in a teaching experiment, due to Steffe and Thompson (2000). The theoretical framework concerns the mathematical processes which show that children of elementary school think algebraically. Data collection took place in 2012 in a public school in Palotina – PR. In this article, we analyze an episode of teaching in the light of Bardin (2004). As a result, it was possible to identify some aspects of algebraic thinking in written records of students, emphasizing the development of a syncopated language to express mathematically, the use of unconventional and conventional symbols related to concepts and properties, understanding the concepts involved in problem, the use of proportion to solving equations of the first degree by mean of inverse operations, analysis and expression of relationships between the unknown quantities without resorting to specific values, among others.