Alexander Karp – författare

This is the first comprehensive International Handbook on the History of Mathematics Education, covering a wide spectrum of epochs and civilizations, countries and cultures. Until now, much of the research into the rich and varied history of mathematics education has remained inaccessible to the vast majority of scholars, not least because it has been written in the language, and for readers, of an individual country. And yet a historical overview, however brief, has become an indispensable element of nearly every dissertation and scholarly article. This handbook provides, for the first time, a comprehensive and systematic aid for researchers around the world in finding the information they need about historical developments in mathematics education, not only in their own countries, but globally as well. 

Although written primarily for mathematics educators, this handbook will also be of interest to researchers of the history of education in general, as well as specialists incultural and even social history. 

The experience and knowledge acquired in teacher education courses should build important fundamentals for the future teaching of mathematics. In particular, experience in mathematical problem solving, and in planning lessons devoted to problem solving, is an essential component of teacher preparation. This book develops a problem solving approach and is intended to be a text used in mathematics education courses (or professional development) for pre-service or in-service middle and secondary school teachers. It can be used both in graduate and undergraduate courses, in accordance with the focus of teacher preparation programs.

The content of the book is suited especially for those students who are further along in their mathematics education preparation, as the text is more involved with mathematical ideas and problem solving, and discusses some of the intricate pedagogical considerations that arise in teaching. The text is written not as an introduction to mathematics education (a first course), but rather as a second, or probably, third course. The book deals both with general methodology issues in mathematics education incorporating a problem solving approach (Chapters 1-6) and with more concrete applications within the context of specific topics – algebra, geometry, and discrete mathematics (Chapters 7-13).

The book provides opportunities for teachers to engage in authentic mathematical thinking. The mathematical ideas under consideration build on specific middle and secondary school content while simultaneously pushing the teacher to consider more advanced topics, as well as various connections across mathematical domains. The book strives to preserve the spirit of discussion, and at times even argument, typical of collaborative work on a lesson plan. Based on the accumulated experience of work with future and current teachers, the book assumes that students have some background in lesson planning, and extends their thinking further. Specifically, this book aims to provide a discussion of how a lesson plan is constructed, including the ways in which problems are selected or invented, rather than the compilation of prepared lesson plans. This approach reflects the authors’ view that the process of searching for an answer is often more important than the formal result.

This book is a collection of scholarly studies in the history of mathematics education, very abbreviated versions of which were presented at the ICMI Congress in 2021. The book discusses issues in education in Brazil and Belgium, in Poland and Spain, in Russia and the United States. Probably the main factor that unifies the chapters of the book is their attention to key moments in the formation of the field of mathematics education. Topics discussed in the book include the formation and development of mathematics education for women; the role of the research mathematician in the formation of standards for writing textbooks; the formation of curricula and the most active figures in this formation during the New Math period; the formation of certain distinctive features of curricula in Poland; the formation of the views of David Eugene Smith and the influence of European mathematics education on him; the formation of the American mathematics community; and the creation of such forms of student assessment as entrance exams to higher educational institutions. The book is of interest not only to historians of mathematics education, but also to wide segments of specialists in other areas of mathematics education.

This book offers insights into the history of mathematics education, covering both the current state of the art of research and the methodology of the field. History of mathematics education is treated in the book as a part of social history. This book grew out of the presentations delivered at the International Congress on Mathematics Education in Hamburg. Modern development and growing internationalization of mathematics education made it clear that many urgent questions benefit from a historical approach.

The chapters present viewpoints from the following countries: Belgium, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Cyprus, Germany, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia,Spain and Sweden. Each chapter represents significant directions of historical studies.

The book is a valuable source for every historian of mathematics education and those interested in mathematics education and its development.