Nerida Ellerton, M. A. Clements (Ken)

Rewriting the History of School Mathematics in North America 1607-1861 (eBook, PDF)

The Central Role of Cyphering Books

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

Two centuries ago, American teachers did not stand at the front of the room and teach, and most students-even those studying mathematics-did not own a mathematics textbook. Written examinations of any kind were not used. Most teachers of mathematics did not have formal qualifications in mathematics. The modern educator might well ask: "If all of that is true, then how were teachers expected to teach and how were students expected to learn mathematics?" In this book Nerida Ellerton and Ken Clements argue that before 1840 mathematics was taught in North America via a cyphering approach that had been translated from Western Europe to the new settlements. This approach was based on a tradition that had endured since the thirteenth century, and depended heavily on students carefully writing their mathematics in cyphering books. After 1840, schools gradually adopted more teacher-centered whole-class pedagogies for mathematics instruction, and by the beginning of the Civil War, in 1861, the transformation was complete. In his Foreword to this book, Jeremy Kilpatrick states: "Ellerton and Clements show that the cyphering approach to learning mathematics has both an extensive history and a complex rationale. In the approach, the learner was to become an independent problem solver by learning to identify problems of various types, learning the rules for their solution, solving such problems, having each solution checked by a tutor or teacher and, only when the solution was correct, copying that solution into a cyphering book using exemplary calligraphy. The handwriting process was not meant to be only copying; it was to be an accompaniment to thinking. The learner was not simply inscribing the solution onto paper; he or she was inscribing it into memory. Cyphering books are a much neglected resource for understanding and appreciating the early history of NorthAmerican mathematics education. The present book marks a major advance in putting that resource to effective use as well as in raising some challenging questions for subsequent research." This book provides the first history of early North American school mathematics in which the implemented curriculum-as seen in cyphering books-takes center stage, while the intended curriculum-as evident in textbooks-provides contextual background for the main argument.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Springer-Verlag GmbH
• Seitenzahl: 226
• Erscheinungstermin: 18. Januar 2012
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9789400726390
• Artikelnr.: 37413741

Autorenporträt

Nerida Ellerton has been a Professor in the Mathematics Department at Illinois State University since 2002. Between 1997 and 2002 she was Professor and Dean of Education at the University of Southern Queensland and, between 1993 and 1997, Professor of Education at Edith Cowan University (1993-1997). Before that, she was Associate Professor at Deakin University, where, in 1991 and 1992, she was Director of the National Centre for Research and Development in Mathematics Education. Nerida holds two PhDs-the first is in Physical Chemistry (from the University of Adelaide), and the second in Mathematics Education (from Victoria University, Wellington). Nerida has written or edited 14 books. She has taught in schools, has served as an international consultant, and has had over 100 refereed scholarly papers published in the fields of mathematics education and chemistry. Between 1993 and 1997 she was editor of the Mathematics Education Research Journal and she is currently Associate Editor for Journal for Research in Mathematics Education.

M. A. ("Ken") Clements is a Professor in the Mathematics Department at Illinois State University. After teaching in schools, Ken completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne. He then taught in three Australian universities (Monash, Deakin, and Newcastle), and at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (1997-2004). In 1980 he was a visiting fellow at Cambridge University, and he has served as a consultant in India, Malaysia, PNG, South Africa, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam. Ken has co-edited two international handbooks on mathematics education (1996 and 2003) and is editor for Springer's third international handbook. He has written or edited 24 books and more than 200 articles. With Nerida Ellerton, he co-authored a UNESCO book on mathematics education research. Ken is honorary life member of both the Mathematical Association of Victoria and the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia.

Inhaltsangabe

Preface.- Table of Contents.- List of Tables.- List of Figures.- Abstract.- Foreword (by Jeremy Kilpatrick).- 1. The Historical Challenge.- 2. Development of a Tradition.- 3. Translating the Cyphering-Book Tradition to North America.- 4. Formulating the Research Questions.- 5. The Principal Data Set.- 6. Ending a 600-Year Tradition: The Demise of the Cypering-Book Approach.- 7. Conclusions, and some Final Comments.- References.- Appendices.

Rezensionen

From the reviews:
"This book shows that the authors see it as opening the way for further study, and indeed they include very carefully thought out questions for further research. ... Other students of life in Colonial North America will also find this a 'must read' book ... . book is extensively referenced and represents a high level of scholarship. ... scholars of mathematics education and its history in North America will find this book a gold mine of information and questions for further research." (Robert George Stein, Educational Studies in Mathematics, Vol. 82, 2013)