Contributions of the Cultural–Historical Theory to Activities for Teaching Measures of Time and Area

The development of the measurement concept in school depends on the determination of the quality to be quantified. In this appropriation process, there are three essential phases: to highlight the magnitude to be measured, to compare magnitudes of the same nature, and to express numerically the result of the comparison. This article approaches the work with magnitudes that, perhaps, are considered the most complex to be understood, especially by children: the magnitudes of time and area. It has as its main goal to point out the elaboration and discussion of teaching situations for the concepts of measure of time and area, revealing and quantifying the quality they express. Based on the cultural–historical theory and from the assumptions of the Teaching-Orienteering Activity, the purpose is to discuss a non-procedural teaching practice that transcends the reading of hours and calendars, the application of meaningless formulas, and dialogues about possibilities of development of work with measurement in the early years of Elementary School, through the development of learning triggering situations.