My pre-reading ideas about math history being taught in into my math teaching, I have always had that intent. Since my math path in university was inclusive of the history in the lectures I was able to see the value in it. In relation to my elementary and high school experience I believe it was done and from my today's perspective I wish it had been done more. How I might implement math history is sharing a topical fact or a personal story, my favourite story is how my calculus professor acted out a proof on how -1=1.
One place that made me pause was pages 212 and 213, in the section 7.3.3 Mathematical awareness. I had read and re-read because of the statements “from original mathematical documents” and “textbooks with history”. It made me pause because it left no room for other information the is not recorded. Many if not all cultures have existed previous to textbooks and their respective knowledge in some cases is transferred orally and the section seems to negate that aspect of acquiring and using knowledge in mathematics history.
Another place I paused was, 7.4.9 Experiential mathematical activities, it instantly put in my mind math is fun. I appreciated part b, “Students can be introduced to ancient numeration systems through their notations and be given the opportunity to practice writing different kinds of numbers in these systems”. I did experience this in my educational path but not in the K-12 system except for maybe some manipulation of roman numerals. I would have appreciated math history games using alternate numbering systems to gain better appreciation for our current system.
The changes in my ideas after reading this chapter will be to try to include math history if it is not included in the course content for the school I will be at in the future. Casual math discussion with students will ideally included acquiring historic knowledge or trying to share to promote math history.
TsáKtalay’pa
Great reflection, TsáKtalay’pa! You made an important point that in some cultures, knowledge is transferred orally, and quite often, we put (too) much emphasis on the written format in math classrooms. Indeed, we have not seen much math history incorporated in the K-12 system. Hopefully, with this course (which was not offered when I was in the teacher ed program 14 years ago), you’ll come across more resources and work with like-minded colleagues to find ways to enrich students’ math learning through teaching math history.
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