Before reading the article, I agree with the inclusion of mathematics history in mathematics education. I believe that incorporating math history will enrich students' understanding. My personal ideas about the benefits of teaching mathematics history are: 1. Helping students understand how mathematical concepts and formulas were developed and how they are used. 2. Students will be inspired by the achievements of mathematicians and will pursue mathematics in the future. I would like to incorporate math history into my own math teaching by giving students some historical math problems to solve and engaging students in proofs to understand how mathematicians of the past thought.
This article mentioned various ways of introducing the history and origin of the Pythagorean Theorem. This stopped me and reminded me of what I had learned about this theorem. It also summarized some of the challenges of integrating history into the math classroom. I agree with the idea about the potential for misconceptions. This is the key to ensuring that students receive accurate information about the history of mathematics. I am still in favor of incorporating the history of mathematics into mathematics education. But I noticed some more ways to do it from the article. And I would like to try them in the future.
Hi Sally, I enjoyed your reflection about didn't change your perspective on whether to include history of mathematics, but that it had you thinking about certain challenges and how to overcome them. I wonder about the contexts you would like to explore. What examples from the article struck you as exciting to incorporate in a lesson? I encourage you to expand them into a lesson or activity for your future students.
ReplyDeleteHi Stephanie, I will incorporate this idea by introducing the history at the beginning of the class. For example, when teaching the concept of zero, explore its origins in ancient civilizations such as the Babylonians, Mayans, and Indians. Discuss the philosophical and mathematical challenges posed by the concept of "nothingness" and how different cultures approached it. This can help students understand the cultural and historical significance of mathematical concepts.
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