Windows on Mathematical Meanings: Learning Cultures and Computers (Mathematics Education Library): 17 - Softcover

Noss, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0792340744 ISBN 13: 9780792340744

Publisher: Springer, 1996

Synopsis

This book challenges some of the conventional wisdoms on the learning of mathematics. The authors use the computer as a window onto mathematical meaning-making. The pivot of their theory is the idea of webbing, which explains how someone struggling with a new mathematical idea can draw on supportive knowledge, and reconciles the individual's role in mathematical learning with the part played by epistemological, social and cultural forces.

About this title

Review

"Noss and Hoyles take on the field of Mathematics Education as a whole to develop a coherent theoretical framework that will encompass its psychological, social, pedagogical and epistemological dimensions. Their pages abound with socratic flies to torment anyone who claims to understand concepts like abstract, concrete, formal, common-sensical and even mathematics, without the context of an elaborated theory. At the same time they present the most elaborated theoretical discussion to date of how the computer presence might contribute to the development of the field."
Seymour Papert, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
`I would say that the book is very readable, and contains a number of interesting details as well as the construction of a theory. It is one important step in developing a theoretical framework for the use of technology in mathematics education.'
Nordic Studies in Mathematical Education, 3 (1997)

Synopsis

Why are mathematical ideas so hard? Is mathematics an unassailable peak, which only the few can ever hope to conquer? Or can mathematics be broadened to be accessible to the many? Noss and Hoyles have written a book which challenges some of the conventional wisdoms on the learning of mathematics. They use the computer as a window onto mathematical meaning-making, drawing together the threads of their individual and collaborative research over more than a decade. The pivot of their theory is the idea of webbing, which explains how someone struggling with a new mathematical idea can draw on supportive knowledge, and reconciles the individual's role in mathematical learning with the part played by epistemological, social and cultural forces.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0792340744
• ISBN 13: 9780792340744
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 296