A response to Integrating history of mathematics in the classroom

 

    

I believe that math history should be incorporated into math teaching, but not in a surface-level way. When people usually hear the word ‘history’ they associate it with facts and historical figures; in the context of math, it doesn’t seem all too important to know where or when Pythagoras lived. And to that extent, I do agree, if math history is incorporated as just who the mathematician was and what he did, it doesn’t serve much purpose. However, where math history can insight more critical thinking is when the mathematicians’ downfalls and struggles can be used in the class. As the article states, we can use the failures of a historical math figure to pose different questions that may engage students more than just giving them a worksheet with questions. This would be a way to implement more relational learning into the course and reduce instrumental learning. Instead of memorizing rules to solve a particular question, students will be forced to engage with (real life) struggles and problems these famous mathematicians faced. It could open up new interests and avenues to the students learning and give a better understanding of the material too. When I first heard the term ‘math history’ I originally thought it would mindless facts that served no use to a students’ goals, but after reading the article my thoughts on it have changed.

One of the main ideas that had me stop during the readings was during the section of Historical Snippets, the sections in math textbooks having incorporated historical information. I remember during grade school, whenever I saw a historical snippet, I was always detracted by the subject material and often skipped it. To preface, I’m not much of a history person to begin with, but much like the article states, I believe I was also predisposed to not engage with the material as I didn’t see it as beneficial to my learning / goals in the course. I believe this predisposition came from how my teachers hardly acknowledged these sections while teaching the course, giving me the impression that it wasn’t important. Further, the Historical Snippets were very surface level information that didn’t pose or solve any problems that challenged the reader, instead it was mostly tangential, expository information that provided no further involvement. However, another idea that made me stop and wonder how I may be able to incorporate mathematical history into lesson with historical arguments / problem solving. The most interesting part of the article to me was how we can use history, mainly as a tool to pose interesting problems to students to make them engage with course material more than just doing practice questions. I believe that the historical argument approach allows students to flex their minds creatively and look for alternative solutions to historical problems, which may also give some students who struggle with the material another avenue to understand and interact with the course. A final section that made me stop in the reading was the idea of using math historians as examples of failure and perseverance. We’re often told about a mathematician who came up with a theory, and it seems like they were able to do it in an afternoon, but this isn’t the truth at all! I believe we can use history as a teaching tool that extends beyond the course material to teach students about perseverance in the face of failure. It’s very cliché, but “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, and using mathematicians can give real life examples of how learning is a process and life-long; hopefully these mathematicians can be role-models for future students.