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Mathematical literacy implies the capacity to apply mathematical knowledge to various and context-related problems in a functional, flexible and practical way. Improving mathematical literacy requires a learning environment that stimulates students cognitively as well as allowing them to collect practical experiences through connections with the real world. In order to achieve this, students should...
Mathematical creativity ensures the growth of mathematics as a whole. However the source of this growth, the creativity of the mathematician is a relatively unexplored area in mathematics and mathematics education. In order to investigate how mathematicians create mathematics; a qualitative study involving five creative mathematicians was conducted. The mathematicians in this study verbally reflected...
Pattern is a key element in both the esthetics of design and mathematics, one definition of which is “the study of all possible patterns”. Thus, the geometric patterns that adorn cultural artifacts manifest mathematical thinking in the artisans who create them, albeit their lack of “formal” mathematics learning. In describing human constructions, Franz Boas affirmed that people, regardless of their...
Are only certain people destined to be multicreative—capable of unique and meaningful contributions across unrelated domains? In this article, we argue that all students have multicreative potential. We discuss this argument in light of different conceptions of creativity and assert that the likelihood of expressing multicreative potential varies across levels of creativity (most likely at smaller-c...
The 2-year introductory study programme in the natural sciences (Nat-Bas) at Roskilde University is an example of a project organised, participant directed, problem oriented, and interdisciplinary science study programme. The paper gives an account of the organisational framework around the project work, and discusses in particular, the thematic organisation of project work, the notion of exemplarity,...
This paper starts from some observations about Presmeg’s paper ‘Mathematics education research embracing arts and sciences’ also published in this issue. The main topics discussed here are disciplinary boundaries, method and, briefly, certainty and trust. Specific interdisciplinary examples of work come from the history of mathematics (Diophantus’s Arithmetica), from linguistics (hedging, in relation...
This article presents the research project IFUN (the acronym IFUN refers to Interesse og Fagoverskrindende Undervisning i Naturvidenskab and Interesse und Fächerübergreifender Unterricht in den Naturwisseschaften which is Danish and German, respectively, for Interest and Interdisciplinary Instruction in Science and Mathematics)—Interest and Interdisciplinary Instruction in Science (we use the term...
This paper addresses the role of mathematical paradoxes in fostering polymathy among pre-service elementary teachers. The results of a 3-year study with 120 students are reported with implications for mathematics pre-service education as well as interdisciplinary education. A hermeneutic-phenomenological approach is used to recreate the emotions, voices and struggles of students as they tried to unravel...
This article investigates different meanings associated with contemporary scholarship on the aesthetic dimension of inquiry and experience, and uses them to suggest possibilities for challenging widely held beliefs about the elitist and/or frivolous nature of aesthetic concerns in mathematics education. By relating aesthetics to emerging areas of interest in mathematics education such as affect, embodiment...
In this paper we focus on an instructional sequence that aims at supporting students in their learning of the basic principles of rate of change and velocity. The conjectured process of teaching and learning is supposed to ensure that the mathematical and physical concepts will be rooted in students’ understanding of everyday-life situations. Students’ inventions are supported by carefully planned...
This article presents one approach to addressing the important issue of interdisciplinarity in the primary school mathematics curriculum, namely, through realistic mathematical modelling problems. Such problems draw upon other disciplines for their contexts and data. The article initially considers the nature of modelling with complex systems and discusses how such experiences differ from existing...
Some teaching projects in which the learning of mathematics was combined with mainly theatrical productions are reported on. They are related and opposed to an approach of drama in education by Pesci and the proposals of Sinclair for mathematics teaching and beauty. The analysis is based on the distinction between aesthetics as related to beauty or as related to sensual perception. The usefulness...
Psychologists and educators frequently debate whether creativity and problem solving are domain-general—applicable to all disciplines and tasks—or domain-specific—tailored to specific disciplines and tasks. In this paper, we briefly review the major arguments for both positions, identify conceptual and empirical weaknesses of both perspectives, and describe two relatively new hybrid models that attempt...
Virtual multidisciplinary learning communities can become an important resource helping school teachers and students to foster a culture of communication, problem solving, and technology integration. Not only does the community concept virtually enlarge the mathematical learning space, it also opens several innovative ways to connect mathematics to other subjects, namely science and language arts...
Through the last three decades several hundred problem-oriented student-directed projects concerning meta-aspects of mathematics and science have been performed in the 2-year interdisciplinary introductory science programme at Roskilde University. Three selected reports from this cohort of project reports are used to investigate and present empirical evidence for learning potentials of integrating...
In this paper, I present an account of attempts to quantify deaths of Iraqis during the occupation by US and other forces since the invasion of March 2003, and of the reactions to these attempts. This story illuminates many aspects of current socio-political reality, particularly, but by no means exclusively, in the United States. Here, these aspects are selectively discussed in relation to the overarching...
The etymology of the word “mathematics” can be traced to Greek roots with meanings such “a thing learned” (mathein is the verb “to have learned”) and, from that, ta mathe^matika, “learnable things” and, “to think or have one’s mind aroused. The natural philosophers of the Renaissance did not draw an explicit distinction between mathematics, the sciences and to an extent the arts. In this paper I explore...
On many fronts, the field of mathematics education does not speak with a single voice. There appears to be no firm consensus regarding the scientific character of mathematics education, the research methodologies it deems legitimate, the kinds of questions it addresses, the appropriate preparation for its practitioners, and its relationship with other disciplines, including, ironically, mathematics...
As a young field in its own right (unlike the ancient discipline of mathematics), mathematics education research has been eclectic in drawing upon the established knowledge bases and methodologies of other fields. Psychology served as an early model for a paradigm that valorized psychometric research, largely based in the theoretical frameworks of cognitive science. More recently, with the recognition...
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