Le attività MERLO nell'insegnamento e nell'apprendimento della matematica

MERLO is an international project, which involves experts in different fields from five different countries. It focuses on a new pedagogical tool, based on the same shared meaning of semiotic representations in different sign systems. Although MERLO was born into a different context, it is well suited for Mathematics education: indeed many scholars, such as Duval, highlighted the importance of semiotic systems of representations and their coordination, as fundamental to learning in order to grasp the underlying meaning and to access to more abstract objects of knowledge. The main research purposes consist in applying the MERLO approach to the teaching and learning of Mathematics in the institutional context of Italian secondary schools. The objective is to provide teachers with new methods for teaching and exploring deep understanding of mathematics concepts, and to provide students with tools to determine their level of comprehension in formative assessment. The focus here is on the Italian research experience in the area of Mathematics education developed at the University of Turin and involving both researchers and teachers from secondary schools. MERLO activities were classified into four main conceptual nodes (numbers, geometry, relations and functions, data and predictions) and into sub-concepts typical of the Italian curriculum. The analysis of the research results obtained from the experiment conducted at an Italian secondary school in Turin allows comparisons about concepts and between teachers and students. This discussion involves the utilization of statistical data analysis and provides an opportunity to talk about Statistics as a tool for quantitative research.