Abstract:

Communication is a transversal ability to all mathematical activity that contributes to the construction of meanings, consolidation and dissemination of ideas. By fostering communication in the mathematics classroom, students have the opportunity to reflect, clarify and expand their knowledge about mathematical relationships. Among the different forms of communication, verbal is perhaps the most natural for students to express their ideas. However, written communication is especially important for providing students with a record of their own thinking, enabling reflection on the work done. On the other hand, it provides the teacher with insights into students' reasoning. Pen pal experiences are useful in developing language skills and in establishing rich and meaningful interactions. Applying this strategy in an educational context, the opportunity arises to highlight written communication and evaluative writing.

The aim of this study is to understand and characterize the written communication of seven future teachers in a context of a pen pal exchange with students of primary education (3rd grade - 8 years old), in particular the nature of the feedback, during the classes of Didactics of Mathematics. Each of these pre-service teachers was paired with two students, and four letters were written by each participant over the course of ten weeks. In the first letter, the focus has the intent of presenting themselves and knowing the recipient. In the following letters the dialogue was continued and the pre-service teachers posed challenging mathematical tasks for the students to solve and for them to give feedback. So, we followed a qualitative methodology, where data were collected through observation, written productions (letters) and an interview with each of the participants. The semi-structured interview, carried out at the end of this experience, aimed to access the opinions and reactions of future teachers on the whole process. We focus our analysis in the quality of written communication/feedback, perceptions of future teachers about the potential of this experience and difficulties experienced. The dynamics of the correspondence exchange allowed the records to be prepared with great care. There was time to read the letters, reflect and send the answer in an appropriate time frame. When selecting the tasks, they realized the importance of knowing the curricular guidelines, as well as the contents that the students were addressing. The need to ask students for a justification was noticeable, since not all of them clarified their way of thinking. The assignments submitted ranged from exercises/problems centered on content addressed by the students. The feedback sent was quite diverse, with a concern to adapt the written comments to each student. In some cases, the feedback was not informative, and was even quite superficial. In other situations, comments were provided that indicated clues for future action, seeking to promote learning. It was concluded that the exchange of correspondence by letter enabled the sharing of ideas, access to mathematical knowledge, the formulation of tasks, promoting the development of written communication. It was an experience valued by the students whom they established communication, giving them diversified feedback in the context of evaluative writing.

Keywords:

Mathematical communication, Written feedback, Teacher training.