An artefact for deductive activities: a teaching experiment with primary school children

In this paper we describe an experiment in which we want to explore the relationship between language and developmental processes of logical tools through “linguistic-manipulative” activities in primary school classrooms. Social and cultural developmental psychology and mathematical logic act as framework for the research. The teaching experiment regards the assertive aspects of the language and it is based on the construction of “system of axioms” and “deductive chains”. A crucial point is the use of an artefact specifically designed and constructed for these activities. By a qualitative analysis of the activities we can observe how the children processed the activities and how the “transformation” of deduction processes in the manipulation of “linguistic objects”, can support in the children the developing of abilities of mastering simple deductive processes.