WHAT IS MATHEMATICAL THINKING AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? Kaye Stacey University of Melbourne, Australia
INTRODUCTION This paper and the accompanying presentation has a simple message, that mathematical thinking is important in three ways. • Mathematical thinking is an important goal of schooling. • Mathematical thinking is important as a way of learning mathematics. • Mathematical thinking is important for teaching mathematics. Mathematical thinking is a highly complex activity, and a great deal has been written and studied about it. Within this paper, I will give several examples of mathematical thinking, and to demonstrate two pairs of processes through which mathematical thinking very often proceeds: • Specialising and Generalising • Conjecturing and Convincing. Being able to use mathematical thinking in solving problems is one of the most the fundamental goals of teaching mathematics, but it is also one of its most elusive goals. It is an ultimate goal of teaching that students will be able to conduct mathematical investigations by themselves, and that they will be able to identify where the mathematics they have learned is applicable in real world situations. In the phrase of the mathematician Paul Halmos (1980), problem solving is “the heart of mathematics”. However, whilst teachers around the world have considerable successes with achieving this goal, especially with more able students, there is always a great need for improvement, so that more students get a deeper appreciation of what it means to think mathematically and to use mathematics to help in their daily and working lives. MATHEMATICAL THINKING IS AN IMPORTANT GOAL OF SCHOOLING The ability to think mathematically and to use mathematical thinking to solve problems is an important goal of schooling. In this respect, mathematical thinking will support science, technology, economic life and development in an economy. Increasingly, governments are recognising that economic well-being in a country is underpinned by strong levels of what has come to be called ‘mathematical literacy’ (PISA, 2006) in the population.
ความคิดทางคณิตศาสตร์และเหตุใดจึงสำคัญคืออะไร Kaye โชแชมหาวิทยาลัยเมลเบิร์น ออสเตรเลีย INTRODUCTION This paper and the accompanying presentation has a simple message, that mathematical thinking is important in three ways. • Mathematical thinking is an important goal of schooling. • Mathematical thinking is important as a way of learning mathematics. • Mathematical thinking is important for teaching mathematics. Mathematical thinking is a highly complex activity, and a great deal has been written and studied about it. Within this paper, I will give several examples of mathematical thinking, and to demonstrate two pairs of processes through which mathematical thinking very often proceeds: • Specialising and Generalising • Conjecturing and Convincing. Being able to use mathematical thinking in solving problems is one of the most the fundamental goals of teaching mathematics, but it is also one of its most elusive goals. It is an ultimate goal of teaching that students will be able to conduct mathematical investigations by themselves, and that they will be able to identify where the mathematics they have learned is applicable in real world situations. In the phrase of the mathematician Paul Halmos (1980), problem solving is “the heart of mathematics”. However, whilst teachers around the world have considerable successes with achieving this goal, especially with more able students, there is always a great need for improvement, so that more students get a deeper appreciation of what it means to think mathematically and to use mathematics to help in their daily and working lives. MATHEMATICAL THINKING IS AN IMPORTANT GOAL OF SCHOOLING The ability to think mathematically and to use mathematical thinking to solve problems is an important goal of schooling. In this respect, mathematical thinking will support science, technology, economic life and development in an economy. Increasingly, governments are recognising that economic well-being in a country is underpinned by strong levels of what has come to be called ‘mathematical literacy’ (PISA, 2006) in the population.
การแปล กรุณารอสักครู่..
