Mathematical Culture and Thought

Mathematical Culture and Thought

“What is Mathematics?” and Why We Should Ask, Where One Should Experience and Learn That, and How to Teach It

Document Type : Translation

Author
M. Haghverdi
Department of Mathematics, Islamic Azad University, Arak Branch, Iran
10.30504/mct.2022.338
Abstract
“What is Mathematics?” [with a question mark!] is the title of a famous
book by Courant and Robbins, first published in 1941, which does not answer the
question. The question is, however, essential: The public image of the subject (of
the science, and of the profession) is not only relevant for the support and funding it
can get, but it is also crucial for the talent it manages to attract—and thus ultimately
determines what mathematics can achieve, as a science, as a part of human culture, but
also as a substantial component of economy and technology.
Keywords
what is mathematics?
teaching mathematics in school
images of mathematics
teacher student

Subjects

Ziegler, G. M, Loos, A., “What is Mathematics?” and why we should ask, where one should experience
and learn that, and how to teach it, in Proceedings of the 13th International Congress on Mathematical
Education, ICME-13 Monographs, G. Kaiser, ed., Springer, Berlin, 2017, 63–77.
Mathematical Culture and Thought
Volume 41, Issue 1 - Serial Number 70
November 2022
Pages 147-163

  • Receive Date 11 March 2019
  • Revise Date 01 December 2019
  • Accept Date 11 December 2019
  • Publish Date 23 October 2022