Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- Contents
- 1 Teaching with Primary Historical Sources: Should it Go Mainstream? Can it?
- 2 Dialogismin Mathematical Writing: Historical, Philosophical and Pedagogical Issues
- 3 The Process of Mathematical Agreement: Examples from Mathematics History and an Experimental Sequence of Activities
- 4 Researching the History of Algebraic Ideas from an Educational Point of View
- 5 Equations and Imaginary Numbers: A Contribution from Renaissance Algebra
- 6 The Multiplicity of Viewpoints in Elementary Function Theory: Historical and Didactical Perspectives
- 7 From History to Research in Mathematics Education: Socio-Epistemological Elements for Trigonometric Functions
- 8 Harmonies in Nature: A Dialogue Between Mathematics and Physics
- 9 Exposure to Mathematics in the Making: Interweaving Math News Snapshots in the Teaching of High-School Mathematics
- 10 History, Figures and Narratives in Mathematics Teaching
- 11 Pedagogy, History, and Mathematics: Measure as a Theme
- 12 Students' Beliefs About the Evolution and Development of Mathematics
- 13 Changes in Student Understanding of Function Resulting from Studying Its History
- 14 Integrating the History of Mathematics into Activities Introducing Undergraduates to Concepts of Calculus
- 15 History in a Competence Based Mathematics Education: A Means for the Learning of Differential Equations
- 16 History of Statistics and Students' Difficulties in Comprehending Variance
- 17 Designing Student Projects for Teaching and Learning Discrete Mathematics and Computer Science via Primary Historical Sources
- 18 History of Mathematics for Primary School Teacher Education Or: Can You Do Something Even if You Can't Do Much?
- 19 Reflections and Revision: Evolving Conceptions of a Using History Course
- 20 Mapping Our Heritage to the Curriculum: Historical and Pedagogical Strategies for the Professional Development of Teachers
- 21 Teachers' Conceptions of History of Mathematics
- 22 The Evolution of a Community of Mathematical Researchers in North America: 1636–1950
- 23 The Transmission and Acquisition of Mathematics in Latin America, from Independence to the First Half of the Twentieth Century
- 24 In Search of Vanishing Subjects: The Astronomical Origins of Trigonometry
- About the Editors
15 - History in a Competence Based Mathematics Education: A Means for the Learning of Differential Equations
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- Contents
- 1 Teaching with Primary Historical Sources: Should it Go Mainstream? Can it?
- 2 Dialogismin Mathematical Writing: Historical, Philosophical and Pedagogical Issues
- 3 The Process of Mathematical Agreement: Examples from Mathematics History and an Experimental Sequence of Activities
- 4 Researching the History of Algebraic Ideas from an Educational Point of View
- 5 Equations and Imaginary Numbers: A Contribution from Renaissance Algebra
- 6 The Multiplicity of Viewpoints in Elementary Function Theory: Historical and Didactical Perspectives
- 7 From History to Research in Mathematics Education: Socio-Epistemological Elements for Trigonometric Functions
- 8 Harmonies in Nature: A Dialogue Between Mathematics and Physics
- 9 Exposure to Mathematics in the Making: Interweaving Math News Snapshots in the Teaching of High-School Mathematics
- 10 History, Figures and Narratives in Mathematics Teaching
- 11 Pedagogy, History, and Mathematics: Measure as a Theme
- 12 Students' Beliefs About the Evolution and Development of Mathematics
- 13 Changes in Student Understanding of Function Resulting from Studying Its History
- 14 Integrating the History of Mathematics into Activities Introducing Undergraduates to Concepts of Calculus
- 15 History in a Competence Based Mathematics Education: A Means for the Learning of Differential Equations
- 16 History of Statistics and Students' Difficulties in Comprehending Variance
- 17 Designing Student Projects for Teaching and Learning Discrete Mathematics and Computer Science via Primary Historical Sources
- 18 History of Mathematics for Primary School Teacher Education Or: Can You Do Something Even if You Can't Do Much?
- 19 Reflections and Revision: Evolving Conceptions of a Using History Course
- 20 Mapping Our Heritage to the Curriculum: Historical and Pedagogical Strategies for the Professional Development of Teachers
- 21 Teachers' Conceptions of History of Mathematics
- 22 The Evolution of a Community of Mathematical Researchers in North America: 1636–1950
- 23 The Transmission and Acquisition of Mathematics in Latin America, from Independence to the First Half of the Twentieth Century
- 24 In Search of Vanishing Subjects: The Astronomical Origins of Trigonometry
- About the Editors
Summary
Introduction
In a series of papers, Michael N. Fried has discussed a dilemma in historical approaches to mathematics education arising because “mathematics educators are committed to teaching modern mathematics …” and he continues “However, when history is being used to justify, enhance, explain, and encourage distinctly modern subjects and practices, it inevitably becomes what is “anachronical” […] or “Whig” history” [6, p. 395, italics in the original].Whig history refers to the kind of history that is written from the present, i.e., a reading of the past in which one tries to find the present. On account of the mathematics teacher, Fried phrased the dilemma as follows:
if one is a mathematics educator, one must choose: either (1) remain true to one's commitment to modern mathematics and modern techniques and risk being Whiggish, i.e., unhistorical in one's approach, or, at best, trivializing history, or (2) take a genuinely historical approach to the history of mathematics and risk spending time on things irrelevant to the mathematics one has to teach. [6, p. 398].
In Fried [7, p. 203], he emphasizes that this should not be understood as if history has no place or role to play in mathematics education, but was meant to point out “that a dilemma arises when the traditional commitments of mathematics education are assumed.”
The purpose of the present paper is to argue that this dilemma can be resolved by adopting both (1) a competence based view of mathematics education, and (2) a multiple-perspective approach to the history of the practice of mathematics.
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- Publisher: Mathematical Association of AmericaPrint publication year: 2011
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