Mathematics & movement: the gallery walk strategy

Abstract

Mathematics should provide an environment that allows students to conjecture, prove, generalize, question, discuss, collaborate and communicate their way of thinking. Moreover, today we have children sitting for long periods of time in the classroom and the Gallery Walk (GW), as a learning strategy, requires students to move around the room, challenging and encouraging them to share ideas. In this context, a study was carried out with elementary pre-service teachers (for 3-12 years old pupils) with the aim of understanding the contribution of a GW for solving problems with multiple solutions by promoting productive discussions. We adopted a qualitative methodology of an exploratory nature, collecting data through observations, written productions regarding the proposed tasks, and written comments on the experience. The results allowed us to identify that the GW involved students in peer resolutions, duscussions with each other and collective classroom discussions more offectively than with the tradicional approach.