The papers are in PDF format. They were created using the TeX typesetting system, and are
therefore in the wrong format for the conference CDROM, which requires
Microsoft Word.
Abstract. The usual ways of teaching mathematics merely `chloroform
the child's reasoning faculties.' So, over seventy years ago, Louis
P. Benezet, an imaginative school superintendent, abolished all
formal arithmetic teaching until grade 6. Instead, students spent
years reading, writing, and speaking, all the while learning
mathematics in context. Today mathematics teaching is also a powerful
anaesthetic: Students solve problems by rote, a skill that improves
with every year in school, and have no time to develop understanding.
Benezet's approach, a lost episode in the history of education,
eliminates rote learning and has great possibilities for incorporating
historical materials.
Abstract. I developed a course in `Guessing and proving'. One goal was to learn
how to critique everyday arguments: to transfer skills from the
mathematics class to the social world. Students said that thanks to
the class they no longer accept what they read in the newspaper. I
then wondered why mathematical demonstration applies so well to the
social world. The reason, no pun intended, lies in the origin of
demonstrative argument: It arose partly from the prevalence of
rhetoric in Athenian democratic culture. If, after reading this
paper, you also find it painful to read the newspaper, don't sue me.
Abstract. Standard methods of teaching physics are useless. I want to
give you evidence or, if you like, ammunition. When people say that
there is no time to incorporate history of science into the
curriculum, you can point out that standard methods do not teach
physics, so radicalism cannot hurt. Students might even find physics
fascinating. My examples come from interviewing students in the
Cambridge University physics course. Even though they are among the most
talented in the United Kingdom, they have great difficulty with
fundamental mathematical and physical concepts. They can solve exam
problems yet cannot reason qualitatively -- they cannot think like
physicists.
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Last modified: 3 November 2001