MATHEMATICAL MODELING IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND THE EARLY YEARS OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION: A META-ANALYSIS OF DISSERTATIONS AND THESES PRODUCED IN BRAZIL (2010-2022)
Mathematical Modeling. Meta-analysis. Early Years of Elementary School. Child education. Training of Teachers Who Teach Mathematics
This research is inserted in the context of academic productions of Mathematical Modeling. We aimed to investigate the academic production of dissertations and theses related to Mathematical Modeling in Early Childhood Education and in the early years of Elementary School, defended in stricto sensu graduate programs in Brazil, from 2010 to 2022. The guiding question of our research was : what do dissertations and theses reveal involving Mathematical Modeling in Early Childhood Education and in the early years of Elementary School in Brazil in the period from 2010 to 2022? In order to outline understandings regarding the objective, we carried out a bibliographical research with a qualitative approach in the modality of a meta-analysis (BICUDO, 2014). As data production procedures to constitute the research corpus, we used the consultation of dissertations and theses in the following databases: Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD); ii) Catalog of Theses and Dissertations from the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES). The research corpus consisted of 37 researches, 30 of which were master's dissertations and seven doctoral theses defended in 18 Higher Education Institutions in Brazil. To analyze the data, we will resort to Content Analysis from the perspective of Bardin (1977) and Rodrigues (2019), which provided us with the constitution of four Categories of Analysis: 1. Mathematical Modeling in Early Childhood Education; 2. Mathematical Modeling in the Formative Processes of Teachers; 3. Mathematical Modeling in the Early Years of Elementary School; 4. Mathematical Modeling in Documental or Bibliographic Research. From the categories of analysis constituted of the mapped dissertations and theses, we present some aspects - (i) Theoretical references and perspectives of Mathematical Modeling; (ii) Methodological procedures; (iii) Research objectives; (iv) Mathematical Content covered in Mathematical Modeling Activities; (v) Guiding question and the results achieved by the surveys - which are recurrent with regard to Mathematical Modeling surveys in each category of analysis. Based on the analyses, we observed an increase in research on Mathematical Modeling in Early Childhood Education and the Early Years of Elementary School in the analyzed period, in addition to identifying theoretical and methodological approaches between the perspectives of Mathematical Modeling presented in the researches investigated.