John Dewey e os embates sobre a psicologia do número

Abstract

portuguesResumo: O presente artigo teve como foco as representacoes de John Dewey acerca da educacao matematica. Especificamente, teve como objetivo explorar as representacoes de Dewey sobre o ensino de aritmetica e o conceito de numero, com base em textos que escreveu apos a publicacao do manual The psychology of number (TPN), do qual foi coautor. Subsidiaram a analise duas cartas de Dewey em resposta a criticas feitas ao TPN e uma resenha. Alguns dos conceitos mobilizados foram representacao, campo e lugar social/institucional, com base em Roger Chartier, Michel de Certeau e Pierre Bourdieu. Ficaram evidentes as disputas entre campos, principalmente entre psicologia e matematica, na determinacao de quem possui legitimidade para arbitrar sobre o ensino de aritmetica. Tambem transparecem representacoes de Dewey acerca da educacao matematica, sendo que ele reiterou algumas posicoes presentes no TPN, como a natureza psiquica do numero e a relacao com os conceitos de medida e razao. EnglishAbstract: This paper focused on John Dewey's representations about mathematics education. Specifically, the objective was to explore Dewey's representations about the teaching of arithmetic and the number concept, based on texts he wrote after publishing the handbook The psychology of number (TPN) as a coauthor. Some of the sources were two letters written by Dewey, answering critics made of the TPN, and a review. The analysis was based on such concepts as representation, field, and social/institutional place, according to theorists as Roger Chartier, Michel de Certeau and Pierre Bourdieu. It is evident that the disputes between the fields, mainly of psychology and mathematics, concern the determination of who owns legitimacy to deliberate about the teaching of arithmetic. It is also possible to notice Dewey's representations about mathematics education, as he reiterates some aspects present in the TPN such as the psychical nature of number and the relation with the ideas of measurement and ratio.