Integrating history of mathematics in the classroom article response

 

1)    My pre-reading ideas was that math history is an important aspect of mathematics education because it shows where the theorems / concepts came from and gives us a better understanding of the process of mathematics exploration. It could be incorporated in to my math teaching by showing the students how a theorem was discovered (the experiments/ steps mathematicians took to figure out the theorem). We could also show them ancient ways to solve the problems which differs from modern methods. In this way they could realize that math is not only just the formulas they see in class but a result of logical thinking process and repeated experiments by mathematicians. 

2)    one thing I agree is that history may be tortuous and confusing rather than enlightening. students may not enjoy learning the history of mathematics even though it might be beneficial. however, it is still crucial to integrate math history into the curriculum.

Another thing is the lack of assessment. If we don't assess, then students may not be motivated to learn. If there is no clear or consistent way of integrating any historical component in students’ assessment, it may be hard for the school to include math history in the curriculum. If some of the school include it and other schools don’t include it, will it affect fairness of assessment across schools?

Third idea I agreed with was that through learning math history, one would acknowledge that mathematics is an evolving and human subject rather than a system of rigid truths. It is a human endeavour which requires intellectual effort and it is determined by several factors, both inherent to mathematics itself and external to it. This is the importance of learning history of math because we would appreciate mathematics as it is. Instead of seeing it as a God-given product we would understand the efforts mathematicians put into the process of discovering the theorems.