Pixels: Creating Lessons with Historical Connections Between Perimeter and Circumference

Authors

  • Shelly Sheats Harkness University of Cincinnati
  • Bethany Noblitt Northern Kentucky University

Abstract

When teachersplay the believing game (Elbow, 1986) while in-the-moment of teaching, they attempt to tease out the merit in students’ answers or comments that might, at first, seem incorrect. Retrospective analysis of video of classroom episodes can allow mathematics teachers to play the believing game after-the-moment of teaching. Within this narrative we share how playing the believing game while analyzing video led us to explore the merit of one student’s comment and the historical connections between circumference and perimeter. Additionally, we describe an activity that Beth created for students in a subsequent mathematics course in order to help preservice teachers see those historical connections.

References

Bidwell, J. K. (1993). Humanize your classroom with the history of mathematics. The Mathematics Teacher, 86(6), 461-464.

Borasi, R. (1991). Learning mathematics through inquiry. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books.

Buerk, D. (1985). The voices of women making meaning in mathematics. The Journal of Education, 167(3), 59-70.

Burton, D. M. (1995). Burton’s history of mathematics: An introduction, third edition. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown Publishers.

Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (1990). Narrative and story in practice and research. In D. Schon (Ed.), The reflective turn: Case studies in and on educational practice (pp. 258-282). New York: Teachers College Press.

Elbow, P. (1986). Embracing contraries. New York: Oxford University Press.

Elbow, P. (2006). The believing game and how to make conflicting opinions more fruitful. In C. Weber (Ed.), Nurturing the peacemakers in our students: A guide to teaching peace, empathy, and understanding, (pp. 16-25). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Ernest, P. (1998). The history of mathematics in the classroom. Mathematics in School, 27, 4, 25-31.

Fried, M. N. (2001). Can mathematics education and history of mathematics coexist? Science & Education, 10, 391-408.

Gulikers, I., & Blom, K. (2001). ‘A historical angle’, a survey of recent literature on the use and value of history in geometrical education. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 47, 223-258.

Harkness, S. S. (2009). Social constructivism and the ‘Believing Game’: A mathematics teacher’s practice and its implications. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 70(3), 243–258.

Harkness, S. S., & Noblitt, B. (2017). Playing the believing game: Enhancing productive discourse and mathematical understanding. Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 45, 63–77.

Harkness, S. S., & Noblitt, B. (in press). Believing and doubting a student’s intuitive conjecture about perimeter. Contemporary Issues in Technology Education.

Noblitt, B., & Harkness, S. S. (2017). Paul’s dilemma: Is this a polyhedron? Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, 7(2), 71–88.

Downloads

Published

2017-07-31

How to Cite

Harkness, S. S., & Noblitt, B. (2017). Pixels: Creating Lessons with Historical Connections Between Perimeter and Circumference. Ohio Journal of School Mathematics, 76(2). Retrieved from https://ohiomathjournal.org/index.php/OJSM/article/view/5831

Issue

Section

Articles