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This study analyses the relationship between solving exploratory and investigation tasks involving functional relationships and the development of algebraic thinking in grade 8 students, giving special attention to the way they interpret and use the algebraic language. The methodology, qualitative and interpretative, is based in two case studies of students involved in a teaching unit of 16 classes which included the study of numerical sequences, functions and first degree equations. The data collection involved two interviews (one carried before and the other after the teaching unit), the participant observation of the classes by the teacher, registered in her diary, and gathering of students' written records. The results show that the emphasis in the study of functional relationships based on exploratory and investigation tasks promotes the development of meaning for the algebraic language and the construction of a wider vision regarding the use of symbols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education professionals face countless problems in their practice. Instead of waiting for external solutions, many of them investigate directly those problems. This paper discusses the meaning of such investigation for teacher education and constructing professional knowledge. To illustrate such perspective, I analyse the journey of Grupo de Trabalho de Investigação (GTI) of the Associação de Professores de Matemática (APM), presenting two cases of teachers' investigations about their own practice. I also discuss problematic issues in this kind of investigation, notably paradigmatic kinship, methodology, role and characteristic difficulties of collaboration and the institutional conditions and professional culture necessary to undertake it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]