Procedural Competences Acquired During the Application of Didactic Situations Related to Fractions

Abstract

This article is the result of a study whose objective was to determine the effectiveness of applying didactic situations to some topics related to fractions, in terms of procedural competences in first semester students for a degree in Education in Mathematics and Physics at the University of Zulia. The research methodology used was didactic engineering belonging to Brousseau’s theory of didactic situations. The sample consisted of 26 students; didactic situations were designed during a 4-week period; before and after this experience, students answered questionnaires to establish their initial preconceptions and learning results, respectively. The study showed that the experience was effective for some indicators, making it possible to effectively diminish syntactical and calculation errors, but not semantic and reasoning errors.