THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ASSUMPTIONS IN TEACHER TRAINING FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL THEORY

Abstract

This paper discusses the theoretical and methodological assumptions that subsidize the training process in the OPM/UEM (Mathematical Pedagogical Workshop of the State University of Maringá), in Maringá/PR, Brazil, in order to acknowledge its implications in teachers’ continuous training. This research was developed by analyses and investigations elaborated in the training meetings with participating teachers at the OPM/UEM. The target public of the OPM/UEM was mainly Early Years and Elementary School teachers. The essential characteristic of OPM/UEM is the appropriation of theoretical knowledge by Math teachers and their method in teaching the subject to students. OPM/UEM is a space of teaching knowledge for the participants and for the teacher-educators. The paper is organized into two parts: the first part deals with the significance and functioning of OPM/UEM; the second part deals with the fundamental concepts that underscore the formation process of OPM, which are supported by the historical and cultural theory. Considerations on the importance of the historical and cultural theory within the teachers’ formation process are provided. The theory presuppositions bond the concept of school education and types of human psychism. In fact, they are tools for the intervention and comprehension of teachers’ learning movement. It should be underscored that the establishment of a new context in the teachers’ continuous formation, marked by the promotion of human development, materializes the social aim of schooling education. In other words, it is the insertion of subjects in history through the appropriation of the highest human productions.

Keywords: Historical and cultural theory; Teaching and learning organization; Teacher training; the teaching of Mathematics.