THE BRAIN, THE CLIMATE, AND THE COUNTRYSIDE: NEURODIDACTIC REFLECTIONS ON LEARNING MATHEMATICS IN THE BRAZILIAN SEMIARID

Abstract

This article addresses the interfaces between the practical experiences of Integrated Secondary Education students in the context of the Brazilian semiarid region and the principles of Neurodidactics applied to mathematics teaching. It is a qualitative, applied study with an autoethnographic design, developed within an institutional project focused on mathematics education in Rural Education (Educação do Campo). The study aimed to identify, in reflective narratives produced by two students belonging to the research group, everyday rural situations that mobilize mathematical concepts, interpreting them in light of neurodidactic principles related to attention, memory, emotion, and contextualization, with a view to informing preliminary pedagogical guidelines for this educational modality. Methodologically, the data were produced through written accounts by the students themselves and analyzed using thematic content analysis, in dialogue with references from cognitive neuroscience, learning theories, and contextualized education. The results showed that activities such as animal husbandry, feed calculation, water management, and agricultural planning function as concrete cognitive anchors for mathematics learning, while environmental factors — especially intense heat — ambivalently influence students' sustained attention and emotional engagement. It is concluded that articulating the practical experience of the semiarid region with neuroscientific principles of learning can guide more meaningful, culturally relevant, and emotionally sensitive pedagogical practices, contributing to the integral education of Vocational and Technological Education students situated in this territory.