Section IV Commentary: The Perspective of Mathematics Education
The ten chapters selected for this section were chosen to reflect the perspective of Mathematics Education. The first task of this commentary is hence to reflect on this perspective in comparison or contrast with the perspectives of the other three sectio
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The ten chapters selected for this section were chosen to reflect the perspective of Mathematics Education. The first task of this commentary is hence to reflect on this perspective in comparison or contrast with the perspectives of the other three sections of the book: Mathematics and Philosophy, Psychology, Stochastics. The next consideration is how the topics of the ten chapters fit within the perspective of Mathematics Education and the contributions they make to our understanding of probability within Mathematics Education. This leads to further suggestions for extension of the projects and issues covered in the chapters. Finally, some comments are made about other past, current, and potential contributions from researchers in probability to the field of Mathematics Education.
1 Why Mathematics Education? In line with the title of the series of which this volume is a part, “Advances in Mathematics Education,” on the one hand, it seems appropriate to label the final section, Mathematics Education. On the other hand, the question then arises in relation to how the contributions in this section are different from those in the other three sections if the entire series is about Mathematics Education. To think about this question, it is necessary to explore the scope of Mathematics Education itself. Unfortunately, in this series it appears to be taken as an undefined term. For the purposes of this commentary, Mathematics Education is assumed to encompass broadly the “teaching and learning of mathematics.” Although teaching usually comes first in such a phrase, it is learning that is the goal of Mathematics Education. Students and teachers are hence the focus of studies in Mathematics Education. The environments in which they interact, however, influence the outcomes of J.M. Watson (B) University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia e-mail: [email protected] E.J. Chernoff, B. Sriraman (eds.), Probabilistic Thinking, Advances in Mathematics Education, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7155-0_37, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
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the education process. These environments include the local culture, language and learning issues, and economic conditions, as well as the all-important curriculum set down by education authorities. As well as the environments within which the learning and teaching take place, a significant factor is the method by which the mathematics, in this case probability, becomes a part of the learner’s repertoire. Over time suggested methods have evolved, reflecting to some extent the impact of research, for example, into the detail of students’ development of conceptual understanding and into the requirements of the pedagogy of teachers that will assist that development. These broad interpretations of Mathematics Education allow the suggestion that the initial section of this book, on Mathematics and Philosophy, contributes to Mathematics Education in relation to curriculum content and perhaps pedagogy. The section on Psychology definitely contributes to the tea
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