Problematization and concept development in the classroom: considerations from the question-answer pair

Abstract This article discusses how the process of building meaning has been treated in the early years of Elementary School based on the analysis of pairs of questions and answers triggered by specific situations in which a case of meaning negotiation between students and teachers in daily classroom’s dialogues could be observed. The corpus consists of the records of the observation of Portuguese language classes of the third grade of Elementary School in a public school located in São Miguel Paulista, a district near the city of Guarulhos. The analyses indicate that both the questions planned by the teacher and the ones spontaneously made up by the students were treated as closed-ended questions, with unique and precise answers, usually involving the act of identifying one possible example of the concept in question. This observation indicates the need of having activities planned aimed to develop a work with concepts on higher levels when it comes to abstract thinking and the generalization process.