The Teaching of Elementary Mathematical Knowledge in Times of the Intuitive Method and the Analytical Intuitive Method

Abstract

This paper aims to understand the methodological recommendations for the teaching of elementary mathematical knowledge in Brazilian primary school, in the 19th -20th century transition. The investigative approach adopted here consists of the analysis of a few writings by Oscar Thompson and Sampaio Doria, which werepublished in pedagogical São Paulo journals. They are: “The Public School” (“A Eschola Publica”) and “Journal of the Education Society” (“Revista da Sociedade de Educação”). In these journals, Oscar Thompson and Sampaio Doria circulated mainly methodological concepts for the teaching of arithmetic knowledge in primary school. From the standpoint of Arithmetic, we saw that, by appropriating Pestalozzian pedagogical concepts, Oscar Thompson recommended the teaching of numbers and calculation based on the intuitive method. Oscar Thompson‟s article revealed that the Pestalozzian intuitive method already presented a teaching proposal based on groups of objects. In the methodology presented by Doria, the first calculation learning would not lie on memorizing Arabic symbols or fundamental signals, but rather on recognizing a set of concrete things resulting from an addition, a subtraction, a multiplication, or a division of objects.