理性精神在中学数学教育中的价值探寻

纵观古今数学发展史,理性主义精神一直是核心动力.从古希腊数学发展中的理性精神,到启蒙运动时在数学等自然科学中重放光彩的理性主义,“理性”伴随着数学的发展逐渐由一种思维变成一种精神、一种主义.RogenBacon曾言:“数学是科学的大门和钥匙.”在数学发展的历史上,理性主义精神一直是其发展的核心动力.希腊时代以前的数学发展,以经验积累为主,加之逻辑推理和演绎证明,使数学结论最终确定.此后,人们开始将理性精神从哲学层面完美地运用到数学层面,去判断数学命题正确与否.     

中美大学数学教育研究之比较

论证了大学数学教育是高等教育的核心,数学教育本质上是一种素质教育,数学的应用遍及自然科学和社会科学.数学是大学理工科各专业知识的基础;探讨了大学数学教育研究的重要性,对中美大学数学教育的研究进行了对比,指出我们在研究大学数学教育方面的不足之处,提出了我们在大学数学教育研究方面的任务和目标.     

基于核心素养的探究性问题设问研究

数学探究是高中数学课程中引入的一种新的学习方式,在探究性数学课堂中,学生围绕新的问题,利用已掌握的知识,方法和数学思想,来探究新的数学对象的性质特征.引导学生应用所学知识从新的情境中寻找到解决问题的方向,培养学生发现问题、提出问题和解决问题能力,通过探究性问题提升数学素养,需要教师以素养为导向,合理设计问题链,引导学生逐步思考,探究数学问题的本质.本文从实际案例(“增比正数列”问题)出发,基于数学核心素养不同水平层级的理论,逐层设计合理问题链,引导学生探究数学结论和规律,提升学生的数学核心素养.     

数学实验与数学建模

继数学建模之后 ,一门新的课程——数学实验——引起不少教师的注意 ,本文根据作者的教学实践对数学实验课程的指导思想、内容和方法 ,以及与数学建模课的关系等问题提出一些看法 .     

数学探究一例

本文中数学探究即数学探究性课题学习,是指学生围绕某个数学问题自主探究、学习的过程.这个过程包括观察分析数学事实,提出有意义的数学问题,猜测、探求适当的数学结论或规律,给出解释或证明.数学探究是一种新的学习方式.笔者认为,在高中数学教学中,适当开展一些数学探究性学习     

精心编织“数学活动”,培养学生的核心素养——以“丰富的图形世界”为例

新课标提出“人人学有价值的数学”“不同的人在数学上获得不同的发展”,想要达成这些目标,课堂教学就不仅仅是向学生传授知识,更为重要的是关注到学生核心素养的培养.然而,在当下应试教育的背景之下,教师更加关注与追求的是考试分数,这样一来,导致了教学中的“竭泽而渔”.目前,数学课堂教学中最为明显的是“重结论、轻过程”的现象较为普遍,从而导致了以数学教学来提升素养这一作用的严重缺失.本文以“丰富的图形世界”为例,以数学活动和问题探究为驱动,着眼于学生的已有知识基础和实践经验,最大限度地挖掘学生的潜能,精心酝酿创造性的数学活动,组织学生经历“操作一析—交流一创造”的活动过程,培养学生的数学学科核心素养.     

议数学解题中的三个关键点——切入点、调节点与反思点

众所周知,数学是一门基础科学,任何一门自然科学和工程技术都离不开数学这一基础.而数学的产生和发展总是在提出问题和解决问题的过程中进行的.美国数学家哈尔莫斯(P.R.Hal mos)认为,问题是数学的心脏,数学的真正的组成部分是问题和解.著名数学家及数学教育家乔治.波利亚(G.Pol     

数学：人类文化的重要组成部分——数学的价值研究之三

前文中我们已论述 ,数学是人类认识自然的中介 ,是自然科学的工具 ,是思想方法体系 ;数学是思维的工具 ,数学活动是一种创造与发现活动 ;数学同时是一种艺术 .因而 ,数学是人类文化的重要组成部分 .它在创造、保存、传递、交流、发展人类文化中充当着重要角色 ,发挥着巨大的作用 .数学促进人类文化不断进步 ,促进人类文明不断迈向更高阶段 ,数学精神是人类文化精神的最高代表 .1　数学是人类文化的有机组成部分在人类文化的长河中 ,我们随机取一个片段 ,都可以发现数学是其中的一个重要组成部分 .古希腊、东方中国至今保存下来的文化遗产中 …     

数学基础课教学改革初探

在参考了当前许多院校的数学基础课教学改革经验的前提下,提出并在新生高等数学和线性代数的教学中试验了一种较有力度的数学基础课的教学改革方案,试验的结果基本上达到了我们教改目的.本文是以上述数学基础课教改试验为背景,对数学基础教学改革所做的一些工作和探索.     

“以学习者为中心”在初中数学课堂中的转型实践

随着新中考改革的不断深化,面对课堂教学的要求也越来越严格,特别是针对“尊重学生兴趣选择,尊重学生个性发展”的思路提出了新的目标和要求.如何对课堂进行“全面而有个性的发展、自主发展、可持续发展”成为新的研究热点.本文从以“学习者为中心”的教育理念、“以学习者为中心”的数学课堂转型路径、“以学习者为中心”的初中数学课堂转型建议等三个方面进行论述,从而阐述了课堂转型的必要与必然性.     

Seeking mathematics success for college students: a randomized field trial of an adapted approach

Many students enter the Canadian college system with insufficient mathematical ability and leave the system with little improvement. Those students who enter with poor mathematics ability typically take a developmental mathematics course as their first and possibly only mathematics course. The educational experiences that comprise a developmental mathematics course vary widely and are, too often, ineffective at improving students’ ability. This trend is concerning, since low mathematics ability is known to be related to lower rates of success in subsequent courses. To date, little attention has been paid to the selection of an instructional approach to consistently apply across developmental mathematics courses. Prior research suggests that an appropriate instructional method would involve explicit instruction and practising mathematical procedures linked to a mathematical concept. This study reports on a randomized field trial of a developmental mathematics approach at a college in Ontario, Canada. The new approach is an adaptation of the JUMP Math program, an explicit instruction method designed for primary and secondary school curriculae, to the college learning environment. In this study, a subset of courses was assigned to JUMP Math and the remainder was taught in the same style as in the previous years. We found consistent, modest improvement in the JUMP Math sections compared to the non-JUMP sections, after accounting for potential covariates. The findings from this randomized field trial, along with prior research on effective education for developmental mathematics students, suggest that JUMP Math is a promising way to improve college student outcomes.     

Exploring informal mathematical products of low achievers at the secondary school level

This article examines the notion of informal mathematical products, in the specific context of teaching mathematics to low achieving students at the secondary school level. The complex and relative nature of this notion is illustrated and some of its characteristics are suggested. These include the use of ad-hoc strategies, mental calculations, idiosyncratic ideas, everyday rather than mathematical language, non-symbolic explanations, visual justifications and common-sense based reasoning. The main argument raised in the article concerns the challenge of valuing informal mathematical products, created by low achievers, and using them within the mathematics classroom as means for advancing such students. The data draws from several research and design projects conducted in Israel since 1991. Selected examples of students’ products, gathered from low-track mathematics classrooms involved in these projects, are presented and analyzed. The analyses highlight various features of such products, and portray the possible gains of teaching approaches that legitimize, and build onwards from, informal products of low achievers.     

基于模糊综合评判的大学数学考核方式改革

独立高校数学课程的开设旨在让学生掌握数学知识的基础上,提高数学应用能力.然而现行的考核方式存在重考试结果,轻学习过程等问题.从传统考核方式入手,指出其不足之处,基于模糊综合评判法建立新型评价体系和数学模型,通过试点运行验证了新的考核方式的可行性、客观性、合理性和科学性.     

A locus for transnational exchanges: European mathematical journals for students and teachers, 1860s–1914

While there were a few mathematical journals aimed at teachers and students as early as the 1840s, it was only in the late 19th century that they became more numerous in Europe. This article is based on the analysis of a corpus of European mathematical journals published between the 1860s and World War I, selected in the first place because they were aimed at high school teachers and high school or/and first two years university students, which are often referred to as “intermediate journals”. All these journals had focused on the teaching of mathematics and, as such, they were shaped by the educational context of the country in which they were published. However, leafing through theses journals, one is struck by the fact that the mathematics they published was in fact highly commensurable, and can see that they were the locus of transnational exchanges on mathematical knowledge. This article shows that several aspects of “internationalisation” were in fact at stake in mathematical journals for students: making knowledge from elsewhere available and of publicizing to the whole world the mathematics produced in one country; making people from different countries collaborate. Finally, it focuses on the effects of transnational exchanges between journals for teachers and students: what was the mathematical knowledge that was circulated through them, and in what respect was it different from that published in other mathematical journals?     

The potential of recreational mathematics to support the development of mathematical learning

ABSTRACT

A literature review establishes a working definition of recreational mathematics: a type of play which is enjoyable and requires mathematical thinking or skills to engage with. Typically, it is accessible to a wide range of people and can be effectively used to motivate engagement with and develop understanding of mathematical ideas or concepts. Recreational mathematics can be used in education for engagement and to develop mathematical skills, to maintain interest during procedural practice and to challenge and stretch students. It can also make cross-curricular links, including to history of mathematics. In undergraduate study, it can be used for engagement within standard curricula and for extra-curricular interest. Beyond this, there are opportunities to develop important graduate-level skills in problem-solving and communication. The development of a module ‘Game Theory and Recreational Mathematics’ is discussed. This provides an opportunity for fun and play, while developing graduate skills. It teaches some combinatorics, graph theory, game theory and algorithms/complexity, as well as scaffolding a Pólya-style problem-solving process. Assessment of problem-solving as a process via examination is outlined. Student feedback gives some indication that students appreciate the aims of the module, benefit from the explicit focus on problem-solving and understand the active nature of the learning.     

Problem solving heuristics,affect, and discrete mathematics

It has been suggested that activities in discrete mathematics allow a kind of new beginning for students and teachers. Students who have been “turned off” by traditional school mathematics, and teachers who have long ago routinized their instruction, can find in the domain of discrete mathematics opportunities for mathematical discovery and interesting, nonroutine problem solving. Sometimes formerly low-achieving students demonstrate mathematical abilities their teachers did not know they had. To take maximum advantage of these possibilities, it is important to know what kinds of thinking during problem solving can be naturally evoked by discrete mathematical situations—so that in developing a curriculum, the objectives can include pathways to desired mathematical reasoning processes. This article discusses some of these ways of thinking, with special attention to the idea of “modeling the general on the particular.” Some comments are also offered about students' possible affective pathways and structures.     

Euler and the structure of mathematics

When Euler began his mathematical career, analysis was not an autonomous and self-founding field of mathematics but only a method for solving geometrical problems. During Euler's activity, analysis emerged as a new field of mathematics whose methods differed from those of geometry. Moreover, Euler changed the architecture of this science and regarded analysis as lying at the heart of mathematics, while geometry and mechanics were considered as a sort of applied analysis. The new structure of mathematical sciences was successful, but this success soon showed the inadequacy of the Eulerian foundations of analysis.     

Mathematics teachers’ conceptions about modelling activities and its reflection on their beliefs about mathematics

The current study examines whether the engagement of mathematics teachers in modelling activities and subsequent changes in their conceptions about these activities affect their beliefs about mathematics. The sample comprised 52 mathematics teachers working in small groups in four modelling activities. The data were collected from teachers' Reports about features of each activity, interviews and questionnaires on teachers' beliefs about mathematics. The findings indicated changes in teachers' conceptions about the modelling activities. Most teachers referred to the first activity as a mathematical problem but emphasized only the mathematical notions or the mathematical operations in the modelling process; changes in their conceptions were gradual. Most of the teachers referred to the fourth activity as a mathematical problem and emphasized features of the whole modelling process. The results of the interviews indicated that changes in the teachers' conceptions can be attributed to structure of the activities, group discussions, solution paths and elicited models. These changes about modelling activities were reflected in teachers' beliefs about mathematics. The quantitative findings indicated that the teachers developed more constructive beliefs about mathematics after engagement in the modelling activities and that the difference was significant, however there was no significant difference regarding changes in their traditional beliefs.     

Aims and Objectives in the Teaching of Mathematics to non‐Mathematicians∗

After a discussion on what is a non‐mathematician and what is an applied mathematician, aims that have been variously suggested are presented and discussed. Attention is drawn to the importance of an understanding of model building and of mathematics as the language of science, and this leads to a plea for co‐operation between the mathematician and the non‐mathematician. Reference is made to the relevance of the ‘New Mathematics’ and to the demand for mathematical rigour, and the paper closes with a brief discussion of the importance of detailed objectives.

     

Game and decision theory in mathematics education: epistemological, cognitive and didactical perspectives

In the 1950s, game and decision theoretic modeling emerged—based on applications in the social sciences—both as a domain of mathematics and interdisciplinary fields. Mathematics educators, such as Hans Georg Steiner, utilized game theoretical modeling to demonstrate processes of mathematization of real world situations that required only elementary intuitive understanding of sets and operations. When dealing with n-person games or voting bodies, even students of the 11th and 12th grade became involved in what Steiner called the evolution of mathematics from situations, building of mathematical models of given realities, mathematization, local organization and axiomatization. Thus, the students could participate in processes of epistemological evolutions in the small scale. This paper introduces and discusses the epistemological, cognitive and didactical aspects of the process and the roles these activities can play in the learning and understanding of mathematics and mathematical modeling. It is suggested that a project oriented study of game and decision theory can develop situational literacy, which can be of interest for both mathematics education and general education.