Argumentation and proving in multicultural classes: a linguistic-cultural approach with Chinese students

The paper explores, through different theoretical/experimental investigations, a particular complex field of study such as the analysis of the teaching/learning phases in a multicultural setting in class. Through a linguistic-cultural approach it is a further close examination on the didactic thematic related to a possible comparison between East and West and particularly between Chinese mathematical thought and Italian thought, in some particular aspects related to the phase of argumentation and proving. To carry out the research, we chose to investigate, in a qualitative and quantitative way, the behaviour of Chinese and Italian students of different ages (13-15 years old) attending the Secondary School of Palermo, on a number theory problem as pre-algebraic problem (“the game of prime numbers”).