Abstract

ZOGAIB, Simone Damm  and  SANTOS-WAGNER, Vânia Maria Pereira dos. “It's close, but it's very, very far”: talking with children about spatial sense. Educação. Porto Alegre [online]. 2019, vol.42, n.1, pp.107-116.  Epub June 10, 2019. ISSN 1981-2582.  https://doi.org/10.15448/1981-2582.2019.1.30133.

In this article, we show evidence of spatial orientation of 5-year-old children enrolled in a municipal early childhood education school. We consider what they say about the school/home/school path. Such study is part of a qualitative doctoral research in education on children's spatial sense in the field of geometry. This text was constituted from listening to children in fourteen realized interviews, from which we selected questions about space notions about near of something (close)/far from something (far away). In Clements (2004), Lorenzato (2006), Mendes and Delgado (2008) we find theoretical support to deal with spatial orientation. Corsaro (2011) and Sarmento (2007) have helped us to study childhood. We have verified that children possess knowledge about spatial orientation and relate spatial notions about near of something/far from something to their own reference points. We conclude that it is important to consider the uses and meanings that children attribute to spatial notions, but it is also worth considering the significant role of school in thinking and problematizing together with the children this spatial orientation in the school environment, neighborhood and city where they live and move.

Keywords : Childhood education; Mathematical education; Geometry; Spatial sense; Notions of near of something/far from something.

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