Learning, Intelligence and Social Environment: epistemological conceptions

Abstract

The text analyses questions 12-14 of the 24 included in the research entitled Epistemology of the Mathematics Teacher (Becker, 2012b), based on interviews with 17 teachers from Peru, Chile and Uruguay. The general aim is to identify the epistemological conceptions underlying mathematics teaching, specifically to learn how teachers explain the learning abilities of students from different social backgrounds and if they think intelligence is inherited. Teachers: display empiricist or aprioristic, rather than constructivist epistemologies; believe intellectual abilities are inherited and differentiated by the environment; and undervalue the action of the subject. The theoretical reference is Genetic Epistemology.