The game Tower of Hanoi in a psychogenectical context

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate, in a psychogenectical context, the relationship between doing and understanding on the solution of the problem formulated from situations contained in the Hanoi tower game, according to Piaget's theory. Subjects who participated in this research were 50 (fifty) students, their age ranging from 6 to 14 years old, from two private school in the state of Espírito Santo. The problem they had to solve was passing 2, 3, 4 and 5 rings from a column A to a column C, using column B and doing it with the least number of displacements. Next, it were asked them some questions about the strategies used by them during the problem solving. The results showed the evolutive distance that separates the practical solution of a task and its conceptual comprehension. In this way, while most of the subjects are able to be successfully in the most of the situations contained in this game, only few ones older can explain which were the means used to solve the proposed problem.