Can there be “research in mathematical education”?
Herbert S. Wilf
Department of Mathematics
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6395
Abstract
We examine a number of papers and a book, all of which have been
cited, by people who are knowledgeable in the field, as being good examples
of “research in mathematics education.” We find specific serious flaws,
indeed fatal flaws, in all of them, so that no conclusions of any interest follow
as a result of any of the “research” that is reported in these works. We have
found no evidence that the research paradigm, involving test and control
groups, randomized trials, etc., which is invaluable in the life sciences, is of
any use whatever in studying mathematics education and we urge that it be
abandoned, in favor of human-to-human discourse about how we