The book emerges from several contemporary concerns in mathematics, language,and mathematics education. In mathematics there has been a developing literature concerning the social and cultural roots of mathematics and the sociology of the subject (e.g. Bloor, Gillies, Wilder). Mathematicians such as Devlin have written about their mathematical experience. With respect to language and cognition, writers such as Lakoff and Dehaene have attempted to identify the origins and influences of language and metaphor in mathematical thinking. In mathematics education, an important research strand has been the relationship with language and culture (e.g. Bishop, Pimm, Restivo), as teachers strive to find explanations and solutions for underachievement by minority groups. The mainfield from which this book emerges is that of ethnomathematics, and the work of Ubiratan D'Ambrosio in bringing to our awareness the sociocultural context of mathematics and its pedagogy. The book emerges from these sources, but takes a different stance with respect to language. Rather than investigating the way language (or culture) impacts on mathematics and how it is learned, the book starts by examining different languages and how they express mathematical ideas, and uses this evidence to argue for a particular view of mathematics as a subject. The picture that emerges is of a subject that is much more contingent, much more relative, much more subject to human experience than is usually accepted. Another way of expressing this, is that the thesis of the book takes the idea of mathematics as a human creation, and, using the evidence from language, comes to more radical conclusions than most writers allow. There are two classes of important consequences of this view. First, seeing mathematics as a subject that has taken one path in its development from many possible paths allows us the opportunity to be mathematically creative with "what if" mind games. The Appendix will contain one such mind-game extended toinclude the beginnings of some significant new mathematics. These flights of imagination will interest a general mathematical audience as creative stimulation in a recreational way. The second class of consequences are some conclusions that mathematics educators might use to assist them to think about the issues such as Math Phobia or problems of abstraction. Suggestions for multilingual classrooms and indigenous education programmes are also discussed. More importantly, the book as a whole provides a point of view that teachers may find helpful as a theoreticalbackground to these situations -situations that are of contemporary interest worldwide. INDICE: Preface.- Introduction.- Part 1: Speaking Mathematics Differently.- Space: Points of Reference.- Space: Static and Dynamic World Views.- Quantitiy: Trapping Numbers in Grammatical Nets.- Part 2: Language and Mathematics.- The Evidence from Language.- Mumbling, Metaphors, and Mindlocks: The Origins of Mathematics.- A Never-Ending Braid: The Development of Mathematics.- What isMathematics? Philosophical Comments.- Part 3: Implications for Mathematics Education.- Learning Mathematics.- Multilingual and Indigenous Mathematics Education.- End Words.- References.- Index.- Appendices.
- ISBN: 978-0-387-72858-2
- Editorial: Springer
- Encuadernacion: Cartoné
- Páginas: 200
- Fecha Publicación: 01/01/2008
- Nº Volúmenes: 1
- Idioma: Inglés