Is it important for teachers to learn the early history of mathematics to improve their pedagogy's?

Question

Hi there, I am currently writing some reflective blogs on the early history of mathematics to draw the conclusion of whether learning the history of math will improve my pedagogical approaches. I am wondering if anyone has any inputs of whether they think this is an effective way of understanding and delivering content in the classroom. My rational behind this is; by knowing the history of how the mathematical theories and ideas have developed into the formulas and mathematical structures we use today, can give us a better understanding on the basic concepts of each of these methods , which therefor can make it easier teaching the content. 

( primary school teacher)

Answer

Although I don&rsquo;t think it should be obligatory, I do understand what you are saying and if they did make the a requirement for future students teachers it could have some positive impacts within the classroom. There are a number of reasons for including a historical component in your pedagogical approach , the two main reasons that I can think of is the elevation of enthusiasm for mathematics and the opportunity to see mathematics differently.

Answer

It's nice to know a bit of history, but it has nothing to do with teaching math in primary school. Your pupils need to learn numbers, not esoteric baloney. I suggest you get some boards precut to make a box and let the kids measure and mark where to put the nails.

Get a ruler in your hands. Measure things until you start to understand how a ruler works. Measure some stuff and figure out where the center is. Say you measure a book and it's 7/8" thick. You look at your ruler and see that every eighth is divided into two sixteenths, so obviously half of 7/8" is going to be 7/16". If you write that out you have 1/2 x 7/8 = 7/16. And you notice that 1/2 is divided into 2/4 and then into 4/8 and so on, so you can convert anything to anything by multiplying all the numbers on top and then all the numbers on bottom.

Other rulers are divided into 10 and 100 parts. But an inch is still an inch, so anything on one ruler can be translated to the other ruler. A half inch on one ruler is 5/10 or 50/100 on the other. An eighth inch is just 12.5 marks when you have 100 marks per inch. A metric ruler divides an inch into 25.4 parts, so a half inch would be 12.7 of those parts. Pretty simple, isn't it? Practice this a bit and people will think you went to wizard school.

Answer

I think that a little bit of history is useful in helping students remember certain things. For example, what would the Pythagorean theorum be without Mr. Pythagoras? It may take away some of the abstractness of the formulas, and help them remember and pick up the thread of thinking about the formulas and what they're for.

Is it important for teachers to learn the early history of mathematics to improve their pedagogy's?

Answers (3)