CLASSIFYING 3D FIGURES BY PROSPECTIVE ELEMENTARY TEACHERS

International audienceThis research aims to characterize how prospective primary school teachers describe and classify solids. A professional task is designed and implemented with 148 future primary teachers. The task is structured in four sections in which construction, composition and decomposition, visualization, identification of attributes of 3D figures and their classification are promoted. The development of the task involves the use of manipulative material (half cubes). For the analysis, some tools of the model of Didactic-mathematical Knowledge and Competences of the mathematics teacher are used. It is observed that most of the future teachers recognize mainly perceptual elements of the figures, which makes them construct dichotomous classifications, and only a few interpret the classification utilizing global characteristics