Números complexos: uma proposta de mudança metodológica para uma aprendizagem significativa no ensino médio

This work presents a proposal of a methodological change to the teaching and learning of the complex numbers in the Secondary education. It is based on the inquiries and difficulties of students detected in the classrooms about the teaching of complex numbers and a questioning of the context of the mathematics teaching - that is the reason of the inquiry of this dissertation. In the searching for an efficient learning and placing the work as a research, it is presented a historical reflection of the evolution of the concept of complex numbers pointing out their more relevant focuses, such as: symbolic, numeric, geometrical and algebraic ones. Then, it shows the description of the ways of the research based on the methodology of the didactic engineering. This one is developed from the utilization of its four stages, where in the preliminary analysis stage, two data surveys are presented: the first one is concerning with the way of presenting the contents of the complex numbers in math textbooks, and the second one is concerning to the interview carried out with High school teachers who work with complex numbers in the practice of their professions. At first, in the analysis stage, it is presented the prepared and organized material to be used in the following stage. In the experimentation one, it is presented the carrying out process that was made with the second year High school students in the Centro Federal de Educação tecnológica do Rio Grande do Norte CEFET-RN. At the end, it presents, in the subsequent and validation stages, the revelation of the obtained results from the observations made in classrooms in the carrying out of the didactic sequence, the students talking and the data collection