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Sabtu, 24 September 2011

why should we learn about history of mathematics????


Before we talk further about that, actually mathematics is also like the other lessons. It’s not only interesting from the material but also from the background. Yah… actually I have known that a lesson like mathematics also has a history^^,. How interesting is it???
LET’s GO to THE REASONS
Ok that's about the reasons why i should learn about the history of mathematic. Emmm don’t you know that learning about something it’s much better if we know everything about that’s thing, for example yah about the background itself. By learning the background of that’s thing, we will more know and more understand how important that’s thing to learn and in our daily life.
And also when we learn about mathematics, it’s much better if we also learn about the history of mathematics. By learning the history we will know the progress of mathematics in the world since a hundred year old before until now, from that we can get the main point of how important mathematics in our daily life and for us. Not only that, by learning mathematics’ history, our knowledge also will be increasing, we don’t only know about the material but also the history, the backgrounds of each material in mathematics. Moreover we are a teacher to be, so of course by having this knowledge or knowledge about mathematics’ history we can create or modify our learning methods then. May be to get the students’ attention and also the students’ interesting we can also use our knowledge about history of mathematics in the opening of our lessons. It also can increase our students’ motivation to learn about mathematics.
not only that, but also in fact there are so many advantages for us who want to know more and learn about history of mathematics, such as:
Advantages of mathematicians learning history of math 
Better communication with non-mathematicians
• enables them to see themselves as part of the general cultural and social processes and not to feel “out of the world”
• Additional understanding of problems pupils and students has in comprehending some mathematical notions and facts
• If mathematicians have fun with their discipline it will be felt by others; history of math provides lots of fun examples and interesting facts

and especially for us who are teacher to be in the future time, it really really important like my statement before:

History of math for school teachers


plenty of interesting and fun examples to enliven the classroom math presentation
• use of historic versions of problems can make them more appealing and understandable
• additional insights in already known topics
• no-nonsense examples – historical are perfect because they are real!
• serious themes presented from the historical perspective are usually more appealing and often easier to explain
• connections to other scientific disciplines
• better understanding of problems pupils have and thus better response to errors
 
•making problems more interesting
•visually stimulating
•proofs without words
•giving some side-comments can enliven the class even when (or exactly because) it’s not requested to learn... e.g. when a math symbol was introduced
•making pupils understand that mathematics is not a closed subject and not a finished set of knowledge, it is cummulative (everything that was once proven is still valid)
•creativity – ideas for leading pupils to ask questions (e.g. we know how to double a sqare, but can we double a cube -> Greeks)
•showing there are things that cannot be done
history of mathematics can improve the understanding of learning difficulties; e.g. the use of negative numbers and the rules for doing arithmetic with negative numbers were far from easy in their introducing (first appearance in India, but Arabs don’t use them; even A. De Morgan in the 19th century considers them inconceavable; though begginings of their use in Europe date from rennaisance – Cardano – full use starts as late as the 19th century)
math is not dry and mathematicians are human beeings with emotions à anecdotes, quotes and biographies
improving teaching à following the natural process of creation (the basic idea, then the proof)
 
•for smaller children: using the development of notions
•for older pupils: approach by specific historical topics
•in any case, teaching history helps learning how to develop ideas and improves the understanding of the subject
•it is good for giving a broad outline or overview of the topic, either when introducing it or when reviewing it
i can give you an example:
Example 1: Completing a square / solving a quadratic equation



al-khwarizmi completed the square^^,
 
x2 + 10 x = 39
 
x2 + 10 x + 4·25/4 = 39+25

(x+5)2 = 64


x + 5 = 8

x = 3












cr: http://www.worldofteaching.com/mathspowerpoints.html

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