Abstract:

The Gallery Walk has emerged as an active strategy in the math classroom with experiences based on solving tasks and social interaction between participants. Intellectual involvement, with discussion and construction of meanings, and physical involvement, with manipulation and experimentation, together enable increased attention, comprehension and memorization. Under the theme "The teaching of numbers", the Gallery Walk was used as an active methodology for teaching and learning Rational Numbers, in a class of future teachers, within the scope of the course of Didactics of Mathematics. This exploratory study aimed to understand the contribution of this strategy for identifying the strategies and difficulties presented by the students in solving rational number tasks, as well as to analyze their willingness to use this methodology in their classes in the future. Six future elementary school teachers worked in pairs to solve tasks and create posters. A sequence of three division tasks for rational numbers was distributed on three posters displayed on the classroom walls. This sequence was solved, and multiple resolutions and comments were presented by the students on each poster. Pair 1 started on poster 1, pair 2 on poster 2 and pair 3 on poster 3. Pair 1 then moved on to poster 2, pair 2 to poster 3 and pair 3 to poster 1, until all pairs had gone through the three posters. Once the sequence of tasks had been solved, each poster was analyzed and discussed collectively. Qualitative methods were used, with data collected through participant observation, students' written work, photographs and focus groups. The results showed the potential of the Gallery Walk, as a way of enabling future teachers to share and analyze strategies, and to identify and overcome difficulties in a collaborative way.

Keywords:

Gallery Walk, math classroom, rational numbers, preservice teachers, higher education.