SIMILARITY OF TRIANGLES

A DIAGNOSTIC STUDY WITH STUDENTS IN THE 9TH GRADE OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Abstract

This article discusses the difficulties encountered by students in elementary school in the subject of similarity of triangles, and presents results of a research on teaching similarity of triangles through the perception of students in the 1st year of high school at two state public schools in Belém The general objective of the article is to make a diagnosis of teachers' teaching and student perception on the subject of similarity of triangles, when they studied in the 9th year of elementary school. The guiding question of this research is: what difficulties do students present when studying similarity and triangles? To answer this, research was carried out in the classroom with 80 students from the state public school of Belém, focusing on questions about socioeconomic issues, study habits, student perception of the subject and student perception of teaching, in addition, a diagnostic test was carried out with triangle similarity questions. The research was carried out with the consent of parents or students themselves who were of legal age. An analysis was made of the students' answers to questions that asked about the education level of those responsible, whether they had ever failed the subject, among others, and it was concluded that changes must be made to improve performance, which appears to be disastrous.

Keywords: Similarity of triangles. Diagnosis. Mathematics Education.