“Going straight”: discussions and experience at primary school

Our research concerns the relationship between spatial and geometrical knowledge, assuming that it is essential to have information on the children’s stored linguistic and conceptual experience associated with the terms defining geometrical concepts. This paper presents the first phase of a design experiment in which 8-year-old pupils are involved in two discussions about going straight, before and after the experience of leaving footprints. The analysis provides some elements about pupils’ conceptualization when approaching geometrical concepts.