A Influência da Compreensão Leitora na Resolução de Problemas Matemáticos: Um Estudo com Crianças de 3° e 4° Anos do Ensino Fundamental.

Solving mathematical problems involves some specific skills, such as quantitative reasoning, already consolidated in the literature as a predictor for mathematical performance and reading comprehension, whose relationship with performance in mathematics needs further studies. Therefore, this study sought to analyze the relationship between reading comprehension skills and performance in solving mathematical problems, also considering quantitative reasoning. For that, 127 students from the 3rd and 4th grades of elementary school from two schools in Porto Alegre - RS performed the tasks of quantitative reasoning, reading comprehension and solving mathematical problems. For the analysis, the sample was divided into low, medium, and high-performance categories in each task. The results showed that there was no significant association between reading comprehension and problem solving, however, we found a significant association between problem solving and quantitative reasoning and between quantitative reasoning and reading comprehension. The importance of quantitative reasoning for mathematical performance is confirmed. We argue that problem solving requires a reading comprehension with knowledge beyond the language commonly used in interpreting school texts, but a specific language of mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]