Assistive technology in multifunctional resource rooms for mathematics teaching: teacher's perceptions

Abstract

Teach mathematics in an inclusive perspective have instigated important reflections in and out school establishments. The area of ​​assistive technology has promoted this ideal and assisted in teaching of the students in the specialized educational service. Therefore, an investigation was implemented to understand how the teachers of multifunctional resource rooms, who teach in early years of Elementary Schools in a municipality of Paraná state, use assistive technology and its resources to mathematics teaching in their practices, and find which of them are the most used. Fifteen teachers are participated of the investigation, which had a qualitative and exploratory nature and was founded in bibliographical research of relevant references of issue, presenting a questionnaire as instrument for data collection. In the data analysis, a qualitative approach was used, founded on the technique of discursive textual analysis. From this, three themes emerged, namely: a) multifunctional resource rooms and inclusion; b) multifunctional resource rooms and mathematics; c) assistive technology. From the listed themes, was clear that teachers recognize the municipality's multifunctional resource rooms as an important environment and a fundamental support for inclusion process, and that mathematics teaching in these atmospheres occurs, above all, through games and educational materials manipulable and adapted for the students, predominantly prepared and contextualized by the teachers.