MATHEMATICS IN EVERYDAY LIFE AROUND PROBLEM SOLVING

At home, at school, in a trip, reading a magazine, a newspaper, an advertising catalogue or a simple chat, are good opportunities for teachers to help children develop or consolidate mathematical notions. The use of real situations in problem solving can increase students’ motivation and interest for mathematics, inducing also students’ creativity. The focus of this work is on the influence of everyday life in Mathematics, more specifically, as a context for teaching certain mathematical content. In this sense, based on the analysis of a teaching experience, in the context of Supervised Teaching Training in the 1st and 2nd Cycles of Portuguese Basic Education, we intend to highlight the potential of the introduction of references in each task to the students' daily life.

Based on theoretical framework and on the results of pedagogical experience, it will be attempted to highlight the applicability of activities related to the studied subject, in classroom context, in the 1st and 2nd Cycles of Basic Education.

Simultaneously, special attention will be given to the advantages of this application in the teaching and learning of mathematical processes such as problem solving and mathematical reasoning. In fact, the contextualization of real situations to formulate problems has been used in mathematics since ancient times, making it more interesting and consequently leading students to value mathematics in their daily lives.