{"id":3236,"date":"2014-12-18T01:00:46","date_gmt":"2014-12-18T06:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/?p=3236"},"modified":"2018-07-31T14:10:52","modified_gmt":"2018-07-31T18:10:52","slug":"improving-math-education-through-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/2014\/12\/improving-math-education-through-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Improving Math Education through History"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"blog-image\">\n\t<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.imacs.org\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/math_history.jpg\" alt=\"After school, weekend and online programs in math and computer science for gifted children who enjoy fun, academic challenges.\" title=\"Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science\" width=\"503\" height=\"336\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3239\" \/><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>A recent study published in the <i><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk\/education\/research\/centres\/stem\/publications\/pmej\/pome28\/index.html\">Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal<\/a><\/i> confirms that teachers&rsquo; images of mathematics and their mathematics history knowledge are interlinked. According to the study&rsquo;s lead author, Danielle Goodwin of the Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.imacs.org\/\">IMACS<\/a>), &quot;By and large, the teachers with low history scores in this study were the teachers who exhibited narrow, negative views of mathematics.&quot;<\/p>\n<p><i>Key findings from the study include:<\/i><\/p>\n<div class='standard'>\n<ul>\n<li>Respondents with low history scores\n<ul class='blog-ul'>\n<li>were more likely to indicate that they believed mathematics overall was like &quot;cooking a meal&quot; or &quot;a tool for use in everyday life.&quot;<\/li>\n<li>were more likely to believe that mathematics is a disjointed collection of facts, rules and skills than respondents with high history scores.<\/li>\n<li>appeared to be more likely to agree with the statement that &quot;the process of doing mathematics is predictable&quot; than those with higher history scores.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Respondents with high history scores\n<ul class='blog-ul'>\n<li>exhibited more favorable views of mathematics.<\/li>\n<li>were more likely to indicate that they believed mathematics overall is like &quot;doing a dance&quot; or &quot;an art, a creative activity, the product of the imagination.&quot;<\/li>\n<li>disagreed more often with the statement &quot;everything important about mathematics is already known&quot; than did their low-scoring counterparts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>Attitudes Influence Decisions that Affect Students<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Why does this matter? Because educators&rsquo; views of mathematics affect student learning experiences in a variety of ways, from daily classroom instruction to curriculum selection and development to far-reaching proposals for national math education reform.<\/p>\n<p>Teachers&rsquo; images of math are typically based on their own limited experiences as young students, and so teacher education programs should incorporate mathematics history into their curriculum as a way of reshaping attitudes, the study suggests. Doing so would help future teachers develop an appreciation for and understanding of math as a subject that is alive and fundamentally creative. Fostering this viewpoint could help teachers help their students understand that mathematics is a natural place for inventive problem-solving where questioning and investigating are highly valued.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Teachers who have rule-oriented images of mathematics can weaken student learning by representing mathematics in misleading ways,&quot; says Goodwin. Instead of conveying as healthy the struggle of intellectual discovery that naturally takes place in mathematics when new ideas are explored, &quot;struggle&quot; in US K-12 math classrooms has come to mean being &quot;bad at math.&quot; This unfortunate association has left generations of Americans hating math and believing in the myth that they are not &quot;math people.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Current teachers and pre-service teachers who want to improve their ability to teach math don&rsquo;t have to wait for curriculum changes at schools of education. There are wonderful and accessible resources that provide a willing and curious mind with a deeper understanding of mathematics in the context of its rich history.<\/p>\n<p><b>Recommended Reading and Viewing<\/b><\/p>\n<p>If you&rsquo;re still looking for a holiday gift for your child&rsquo;s math teacher, perhaps one of the recommended books below would be appreciated. For the visually-inclined,<br \/>\nthe videos and movies that follow provide many hours of awe-inspiring and sometimes humorous enlightenment.<\/p>\n<div class='standard'>\n<ul>\n<li><i>Books:\n<ul class='blog-ul'>\n<li><i><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Journey-through-Genius-Theorems-Mathematics\/dp\/014014739X\">Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics<\/a><\/i> by William Dunham<\/li>\n<li><i><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Man-Who-Loved-Only-Numbers\/dp\/0786884061\">The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth<\/a><\/i> by Paul Hoffman<\/li>\n<li><i><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Story-Number-Princeton-Science-Library\/dp\/0691141347\">e: The Story of a Number<\/a><\/i> by Eli Maor<\/li>\n<li><i><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Women-Mathematics-Lynn-M-Osen-ebook\/dp\/B002XQ2CD2\">Women in Mathematics<\/a><\/i> by Lynn M. Osen<\/li>\n<li><i><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Joy-Pi-David-Blatner\/dp\/0802775624\">The Joy of Pi<\/a><\/i> by David Blatner<\/li>\n<li><i><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/G%C3%83%C2%B6del-Escher-Bach-Eternal-Golden\/dp\/0465026567\">G&ouml;del, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid<\/a><\/i> by Douglas R. Hofstadter<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\t\t<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>Videos and Movies:<\/i>\n<ul class='blog-ul'>\n<li><i><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLpGHT1n4-mAvzAtg6Qo8aTld6goSPxo4o\">Mathematics: Making the Invisible Visible<\/a><\/i>, a five-lecture survey course by Stanford mathematics professor Keith Devlin<\/li>\n<li><i><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/127338218\">A Mathematical Mystery Tour<\/a><\/i>, BBC documentary looking at some of the greatest problems in the history of mathematics, some of which have since been solved<\/li>\n<li><i><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/24751596\">Fermat&rsquo;s Last Theorem<\/a><\/i>, BBC documentary about mathematician Andrew Wiles&rsquo; proof of Fermat&rsquo;s Last Theorem<\/li>\n<li><i><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/56113926\">The Story of 1<\/a><\/i>, BBC documentary about the history of numbers<\/li>\n<li><i><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0268978\/\">A Beautiful Mind<\/a><\/i> starring Russell Crowe as mathematician John Nash (PG-13)<\/li>\n<li><i><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/theimitationgamemovie.com\/\">The Imitation Game<\/a><\/i> starring Benedict Cumberbatch as mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing (PG-13)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"after-post\">\n\tGive your talented child <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/what-does-it-mean-to-be-genuinely-good-at-math\/\">the benefit of learning mathematics<\/a> in a way that allows him or her to experience the thrill of intellectual discovery and meaningful challenge. Enroll in the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elementsofmathematics.com\/\">Elements of Mathematics: Foundations<\/a> online program for bright secondary school students. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elementsofmathematics.com\/\">EMF<\/a> presents all of middle and high school math up to Calculus &mdash; and much, much more &mdash; as a cohesive body of knowledge made up of elegant and interconnected ideas. Visit <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elementsofmathematics.com\/\">www.elementsofmathematics.com<\/a> to learn more.<\/p>\n<p>\tLike <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.imacs.org\/\">IMACS<\/a> on <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/eimacs\">Facebook<\/a> for the latest information about our <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.imacs.org\/math-computer-science\/after-school-math-enrichment\/\">local classes<\/a> and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.imacs.org\/math-computer-science\/distance-learning\/\">online courses<\/a>.\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent study published in the Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal confirms that teachers&rsquo; images of mathematics and their mathematics history knowledge are interlinked. According to the study&rsquo;s lead author, Danielle Goodwin of the Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science (IMACS), &quot;By and large, the teachers with low history scores in this study were the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-curriculum-development","category-stem-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3236"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}