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3 AUTHORS, INCLUDING:
Adrian Oldknow
University of Chichester
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RESUME. Linteraction et les liens entre objets (structures ou peu structures), images,
langage et symboles qui portent vers le raisonnement mathematique et la formulation des
propositions mathematiques dune grande generalite meritent detre e tudies davantage. Je
crois que la distinction subtile entre la mani`ere de laquelle les idees mathematiques sont
construites a` partir des objets, et les caracteristiques particuli`eres des objets nest pas toujours
claire pour les professeurs. Pendant la seance pleni`ere, avec laide des coll`egues et lemploi
des exemples et des situations pratiques, je voudrais explorer la distinction entre les idees
mathematiques qui sont discutees dans les salles de classe et les objets qui servent a` aider
les abstractions. Lusage de la technologie interactive pour la creation des significations
mathematiques sera une partie importante des contributions de mes coll`egues.
ABSTRACT. The interplay among and connections between objects (structured or unstructured), images, language and symbols that lead to mathematical reasoning and the stating
of mathematical propositions of very wide generality is well worth closer study. I believe
that the subtle distinction between the way mathematical ideas are constructed from objects
and the particular characteristics of the objects is often not clear in many teachers minds.
In the plenary, with the help of colleagues, using practical examples and situations, I would
like to explore the distinction between the mathematical ideas that are being discussed in
classrooms and the objects that are used in helping with abstractions. The use of interactive
technology in the creation of mathematical meanings will form an important part of my
colleagues contributions.
KEY WORDS: interactive technology, mathematical abstractions, teaching aids
The principles here advocated are receiving daily verification in many schools,
where the practical and theoretical aspects of mathematics are co-ordinated and
developed: where simple descriptive geometry aids and is aided by clay-modelling
and drawing: where theoretical geometry and practical geometrical drawing and
mensuration illustrate and assist each other: where theoretical and experimental
mechanics are associated with each other and with pure mathematics: where, in
fine, all the branches of elementary mathematics, pure and applied, theoretical
and experimental, are commingled at appropriate times, so that the mind sees and
uses its mathematical conceptions and processes as a beautiful, well-ordered, and
powerful whole, instead of a thing of shreds and patches.
Benchara Branford (1908), A Study of Mathematical Education
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This article is based on a plenary lecture delivered at the 55th International Conference
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It has been a real pleasure for me to have worked on presenting this plenary for which I (Afzal) would like to thank the organisers, our Polish
hosts. They have chosen a really rich theme, The use of didactic materials
for developing pupils mathematical activities, which brings together all
the essential elements concerned with mathematics education and makes
it possible for participants to articulate their diverse experiences and perspectives in a way which helps all of us to reflect on and refine old issues
and bring to surface new ones. Choice of subtle themes is an art in which
the Polish mathematics educators seem to excel. For example, the theme
of 1960 CIEAEM conference in Krakow was mathematiques de base. For
some it meant the logical foundations, to other the utilitarian topics which
should be in the school course for every child, to others again it might have
meant the framework of elementary ideas which is the key to the pursuit of
higher levels of the subject in its current state of development. The aim of
the conference was to reconcile these many aspects. I believe that the theme
of this conference has many parallels with the 1960 conference. However
much I tried to focus on an aspect of the theme, I kept returning to the
following three areas:
The nature of mathematics.
How people learn, particularly mathematics.
Perceptions of mathematics and the way people react to and engage with
mathematics.
In this plenary, I will grapple with these ideas, but not systematically.
The International Programme Committee of CIEAEM 55 made it clear
in their Second Announcement that much discussion and research had
taken place on teaching aids and structural materials as embodiments of
mathematical structures in the past. The aim of this conference was to
interpret didactic materials in the broadest sense and shift the emphasis
from materials themselves as an issue for discussion to the use of these in the
learning and teaching of mathematics. I shall therefore use teaching aids
to encompass structured and unstructured materials, including computers
and calculators, used to support the teaching and learning of mathematics.
1. TEACHING
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There are profound and ongoing discussions on the nature and the science of
mathematics education and research at the international level. As mentioned
earlier, our view of why we teach mathematics and how it can be learned
effectively is bound to influence the approach to teaching and hence, the
use of teaching aids. For the purpose of illustrating this argument further,
consider the following crude polarisation.
Mathematical procedures are taught to all the school pupils because they
will help them in everyday life as well as in application.
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bare bones have been retained. This cutting through the noise and getting
rid of irrelevancies and getting down to real message is, according to Dienes,
an asset which will enable all to cope with the diverse and evolving contexts
of our lives.
Central to the process of abstraction in mathematics is the discovery
and representation of regularities or patterns. To quote Steen (1990):
Mathematics is an exploratory science that seeks to understand every kind of
patternpatterns that occur in nature, patterns invented by the human mind, and
even patterns created by other patterns. To grow mathematically, children must be
exposed to a rich variety of patterns appropriate to their own lives through which
they can see variety, regularity and interconnections.
This, for me, implies that the discovery and expression of patterns and
relationships require action on the part of learners regardless of age or
ability. The fact that mathematical relationships can be communicated in
a variety of ways makes it accessible to all children and adults. Hence, I
believe, the fundamental concepts of mathematics have to be drawn from
human experiences and existence. Perhaps the formalising of mathematics
has often prevented us from regarding common sense based on experience
as a valid, indispensable and legitimate basis for checking the mathematical
procedures and algorithms. Obviously, the use of didactic materials/tools
can play an important role in the discovery and expression of relationships. I would now like to focus on the use and characteristics of teaching
aids.
3. CHARACTERISTICS
OF TEACHING AIDS
Biggs (1972) classified the process of discovering mathematics in five categories: fortuitous, free and exploratory, guided, directed, and programmed.
The broad implications being that, at one extreme, fortuitous discovery
cannot be planned but it does happen. At the other extreme, programmed
discovery implies a rigid and directed learning sequence. It may be tempting to classify didactic materials to parallel this classification particularly
when we have examples of structured apparatus such as Stern, Cuisenaire
and Dienes blocks and availability of materials such as counters, pebbles
and commercial packages which are not designed with a particular mathematical structure or property in mind. A more productive perspective on
materials would be to ask how we can offer materials with sufficient openness to encourage children to describe the different ways in which they
perceive things, while ensuring support for their mathematical development.
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The advantages of mathematical play were also stressed by many mathematics educators. For example,
Mathematical play can be profitably used by people of all ages when faced with
new mathematical situations. We believe that the use of this play can extend the participants mathematical horizons; increase the connections between their separate
pieces of mathematical knowledge, engender a positive attitude towards the subject; and improve successful learning and understanding in mathematics generally.
(Holton et al., 2001)
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Through raising the above points I have attempted to suggest that although tools can vary in the degree of inherent or built-in mathematical
structures, tools cannot ensure that a particular understanding will come
about. Different students will engage with the same tool in different ways
depending on the conceptions they bring with them and hence will establish
different understanding. Teachers role is crucial in the way they introduce
the use of the tools.
We now come to computers.
4. COMPUTER
Papert (1980) believed that before we had computers there were not many
points of contact between fundamental and engaging aspects of mathematics and experiences firmly planted in everyday life.
But the computera mathematics-speaking being in the midst of the everyday life
of the home, school and workplaceis able to provide such links. The challenge
to education is to find ways to exploit them.
Twenty three years later, to what extent are we any nearer to responding
to Paperts challenge in the context of access to the increasingly sophisticated electronic aids as well as evidence on learning and acquisition of
knowledge?
Everybody Counts, The report on the Future of Mathematics by
the USA National Research Council (1989), stated,
In spite of the intimate intellectual link between mathematics and computing,
school mathematics has responded hardly at all to curricular changes implied
by the computer revolution. Curricula, texts, tests, and teaching habitsbut not
the students- are all products of the pre-computer age. Little could be worse for
mathematics education than an environment in which schools hold students back
from learning what they find natural.
My colleagues Adrian and Alison will now respond to the above issues concerning the use of technology in the teaching and the learning of
mathematics.
4.1. Examples from a project on linking algebraic and geometric
reasoning
I (Adrian) want to rephrase Paperts question in a slightly different form:
We have many powerful ICT toolsfor doing mathematics, for learning
mathematics and for teaching mathematicsbut how can we harness them
to best effect?
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My examples are taken from a current project for the UKs Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) on which I am working with
Kenneth Ruthven from the University of Cambridge: Linking algebraic
and geometric reasoning with dynamic geometry software, and also from
two articles by Oldknow (2003a, 2003b).
Through technology such as digital cameras, scanners and the Internet we have easy access to a wealth of digital images in a variety of
common formats (jpeg, tiff, bmp, etc.). These enable teachers and students easily to bring images from the outside world into the mathematics
classroom. For example, the image in Figure 3 was scanned from a photograph reproduced on the title page of the Mathematical Associations
journal: The Mathematical Gazette Vol. 86 No. 507 Nov. 2002. It shows
part of the roof structure of Stockport railway station, near Manchester,
UK. Such an image can easily be imported as part of the background for
a sketch in dynamic software such as the Geometers Sketchpad (GSP)
or Cabri Geometry II Plusboth of which are now common in many
schools.
We can identify several features of mathematical interest in this image
for example, there is a sequence of (green) circles whose radii are diminishing as they become more distant. So we could explore geometric ideas
of perspective by drawing lines joining corresponding points in the image.
Similarly we could explore numerical ideas of perspective by taking measurements from the image. There also appears to be arcs of ellipses in the
image, so we could explore algebraic ideas from coordinate geometry by
superimposing axes and plotting graphs of functions (Figure 4).
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now setting a new strategy for ICT in schools with a new focus: to unlock
the value that ICT can undoubtedly bring to education (Charles Clarke,
Minister for Education May 21st 2003; DfES 2003).
Alison will now illustrate how the power of ICT tools can be made
accessible to teachers.
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functions in this way with their pupils. The ICT was prompting a review of
the teaching methodology and encouraging teachers to ask questions such
as, Why do we not talk about the roots of linear functions when there is
an obvious mathematical progression from these to the roots of quadratic
functions?
In France, classroom research with teachers carried out by Laborde
(2001) reported the role played by technology moved from being a useful
amplifier or provider of data towards being an essential constituent of the
meaning of tasks as teachers developed their use of technology in the
classroom.
To finish my contribution, I will quote Papert (1980):
We are learning how to make computers with which children love to communicate.
When this communication occurs, children learn mathematics as a living language.
REMARKS
To sum up and end this plenary, I (Afzal) would like us to be aware that how
materials and tools are used is the most important factor, since teachers can
use: good materials well; good materials badly; bad materials well and bad
materials badly.
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