Malara N.A., Navarra G. (2001). ‘Brioshi’ and other mediation tools employed in a teaching of arithmetic with the aim of approaching algebra as a language
Malara N.A., Navarra G. (2001). ‘Brioshi’ and other mediation tools employed in a teaching of arithmetic with the aim of approaching algebra as a language. In Proc. ICMI Study on Algebra (Melbourne, Australia, Dicembre 2001). Vol. 2. 412-419.
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We shall trace the outline and the initial results of an experimental project on didactic innovation in primary schools aimed at the pre-algebra stage of maths teaching. The complex structure of this project entails the involvement of teachers in the discussion and reflection on the results of the experiment, making it at the same time a teacher training project. Here we shall concentrate on describing one of the newest and most productive teaching schemes based on “Brioshi”, an imaginary Japanese boy used as the figure through which to study simple problems with the aim of representing them using communication via e-mail. The activity, carried out in third-year primary schools, is based on the analysis and discussion of the representation given by the pupils and on the negotiation of the most effective one which leads to their mastering the e-mail problems through the codification of simple processes and which activates the interpretation of connected algebraic expressions.
