Book Review: Approaching the core of the modern mathematics movement. Dirk De Bock and Geert Vanpaemel (Eds.) (2019) Rod
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Book Review: Approaching the core of the modern mathematics movement. Dirk De Bock and Geert Vanpaemel (Eds.) (2019) Rods, sets and arrows – the rise and fall of modern mathematics in Belgium Cham, Switzerland: Springer. xxii + 293 pp. Hardcover: ISBN 978-3030-20598-0 99,99 €. eBook: 978-3-030-20599-7 85.59 € Kristín Bjarnadóttir 1 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
1 Introduction It is quite an asset for the international community of the history of mathematics education to receive a book on the history of the rise and fall of the modern mathematics movement in Belgium, a country which was situated close to the centre of the momentous events in mathematics education around 1960. An influential international seminar was held at Cercle Culturel de Royaumont in Asnières-sur-Oise (France) in November 1959. For Belgium, the Royaumont Seminar provided a point of reference in the elaboration of a new mathematics curriculum. In the following years, a modern mathematics curriculum was actively developed. The book, Rods, Sets and Arrows – The Rise and Fall of Modern Mathematics in Belgium, is written by Dirk De Bock and Geert Vanpaemel, both professors at the University of Leuven. It is a comprehensive history of Belgian mathematics education during the second half of the twentieth century, but it has a much wider connotation. Not only does the book clarify which reasons lay behind the decisions to alter the international educational scene of mathematics in the post-World War II period. It also throws light on the process of implementing radical changes in any society, the successes, the obstacles and the failures, and the permanent alterations left when the process is over. The story of modern mathematics in Belgium has many similarities to stories in a number of other countries. Even if each society has its own specialities, the similarities are even greater. In many respects, the relatively small country of Belgium is a Microcosm of Europe. In its history, Belgium has served as the scene of so many battles between the powers of Europe that it has even been named the Battlefield of Europe. It is a multicultural country, where the Germanic Dutch culture and the Roman French culture meet, a perfect ground for a crucible of ideas. It absorbs ideas from far and wide, and it conveys ideas to other countries.
* Kristín Bjarnadóttir [email protected]
1
School of Education, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland
Bjarnadóttir K.
The post-WWII era was a time of revaluation of all spheres of life. Social systems, education, and art all came under scrutiny. School mathematics was among the spheres of focus that gained the attention of many nations that had suffered from the war. Many young people were considered incompetent in mathematics, and school mathematics was regarded as being out of touch with modern developments in academic mathematics. It needed to be adapted, not only in methodology but also in actual content. Also, there was a growing need for trained personnel to serve an emerging technological society. Last but not least,
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