Materiais concretos no ensino fundamental: uma análise teórica em Vygotsky

Abstract

This study aimed to reflect on the role of concrete materials in the teaching of subtraction in the 3rd year of elementary education, based on Vygotsky’s historical-cultural theory. The research emerged from experiences during Supervised Teaching Practice III, in which the use of different manipulatives—such as student-made counters and base-ten blocks—produced distinct learning outcomes. While the counters supported an intuitive understanding of simple subtraction, the base-ten blocks did not meet expectations regarding the teaching of regrouping, leading to the need to investigate how teacher mediation influences the use of these resources. Methodologically, this is a qualitative, bibliographic, and participant study, grounded in the articulation between theory and practice. The theoretical review encompasses conceptions of concreteness proposed by authors such as Montessori, Piaget, Dienes, Lorenzato, and Soares, highlighting that concreteness is not limited to the materiality of objects but is related to the cognitive meaning constructed by the learner. From a Vygotskian perspective, it was understood that concrete materials become pedagogical instruments only when integrated into activities mediated by language, social interaction, and intentional teaching, enabling the transition from empirical understanding to abstraction. The results indicate that the effectiveness of concrete materials does not depend on their physical structure or pedagogical tradition, but on the quality of the mediation guiding their use. It is concluded that, in order to contribute meaningfully to mathematics learning, concrete materials must be embedded in practices that articulate action, reflection, and meaning-making, fostering the construction of scientific concepts in a contextualized and socially mediated manner.