Mediation as a Guiding Basis for Action: analysis of manuals for teaching the use of soroban

Abstract

The study aimed to analyze, in didactic manuals for teaching, the use of soroban and mediation as a guiding basis for action in the formation of concepts related to numbers and operations. The research is theoretically based on the assumptions of Vygotsky's Cultural-Historical Theory and Galperin's Theory of Concept Formation. With a qualitative approach, it uses bibliographical research as a strategy. The collection consisted of seven teaching manuals; four were prepared before the establishment of the Brazilian Soroban Studies and Research Commission (CBS) and three were published after the establishment of the CBS, these three being analyzed in this study. The results reveal the predominance of the type II guiding basis, common in traditional teaching. In the manuals examined, no approximations were observed between the guidelines on carrying out operations on the soroban and the principles of the decimal numbering system, in order to promote learning how to use it without subsequently relying on these manuals. They point out the need to develop a teaching methodology via mediation, in which, through social interaction, instruments and signs are used as means in the process of internalizing knowledge and in the development of higher psychological functions.

Soroban; Mediation; Guiding basis for action; Didactic manuals