Abstract:
This paper analyzes how the results of scientific investigations by the American educator Carleton Washburne have become guidelines for pedagogical practices for the teaching of Arithmetic in elementary school. The analysis takes as reference the experiments developed in the schools of Winnetka during Washburne's management as superintendent of teaching in the period from 1919 to 1943, from which new epistemological bases were established for the teaching of Arithmetic. The results show the first steps in the scientific elaboration of knowledge about the teaching of Arithmetic, based on new objectives and a new curricular organization, which best delimited the field of mathematics teaching in elementary school. The process took place in a teaching journey that followed the understanding of the number, the mastery of numerical combinations, and the application to everyday situations life, described in statements that were available in?/to children's language, as indicated by scientific investigations.
Keywords:
Mathematics teaching; Elementary school; Problem solving; History of mathematical education; Carleton Washburne