Learning Mathematics
Issues, Theory and Classroom Practice
Author(s): Anthony Orton
Publisher: Continuum
Date : 2004
Pages : 241
Format : PDF
OCR : Y
Language : English
ISBN-10 : 0826471145
ISBN-13 : 9780826471147
Issues, Theory and Classroom Practice
Author(s): Anthony Orton
Publisher: Continuum
Date : 2004
Pages : 241
Format : PDF
OCR : Y
Language : English
ISBN-10 : 0826471145
ISBN-13 : 9780826471147
Description
This new edition constitutes a major and fundamental revision of the original
text. Nearly twenty years have passed since the manuscript was first drafted, and much has been written on issues of learning mathematics in those intervening years. As one would hope and expect, newly published research continues to provide additional enlightenment. There are also new areas of concern which have come to the fore in recent years and which therefore demanded a place, and this has led to the introduction of three new chapters. Two of these chapters are absolutely new, one relating to issues of situated cognition and transfer of learning, and the other being concerned with the place of pattern in mathematics. The third new chapter is an expansion and reorganization of material which existed in a much more abbreviated form in previous editions and concerns the issue of constructivism.
It had originally been hoped to include chapters on the impact of calculators and computers on learning, and on the issue of advanced mathematical thinking, but unfortunately constraints of space did not allow either of these to be included. Indeed, in order to make room for the three new chapters and for the revision and extension of existing chapters, two of the original ones have been greatly reduced, with what has been retained from them being dispersed to relevant chapters in this new edition. The criterion for discarding any material was solely that it is now better dealt with in other texts. All of the remaining eight chapters have been revised, some have been extended, and many have been largely rewritten. Although the book is written from a British perspective, issues of learning are global, so the book is still relevant on an international basis, and all of the references to and from other countries which were introduced in the second edition have been retained. The book is not tied to any particular curriculum, though the requirements and constraints of the National Curricula of Britain are fully acknowledged.
The major difficulty in revising the book has been what it has always been, namely that there are so many relevant references relating to the issues of the book, more than could ever be acknowledged without the text taking on some of the characteristics of a catalogue. Once again, I can only apologize to those whose work I have not been able to use.
This new edition constitutes a major and fundamental revision of the original
text. Nearly twenty years have passed since the manuscript was first drafted, and much has been written on issues of learning mathematics in those intervening years. As one would hope and expect, newly published research continues to provide additional enlightenment. There are also new areas of concern which have come to the fore in recent years and which therefore demanded a place, and this has led to the introduction of three new chapters. Two of these chapters are absolutely new, one relating to issues of situated cognition and transfer of learning, and the other being concerned with the place of pattern in mathematics. The third new chapter is an expansion and reorganization of material which existed in a much more abbreviated form in previous editions and concerns the issue of constructivism.
It had originally been hoped to include chapters on the impact of calculators and computers on learning, and on the issue of advanced mathematical thinking, but unfortunately constraints of space did not allow either of these to be included. Indeed, in order to make room for the three new chapters and for the revision and extension of existing chapters, two of the original ones have been greatly reduced, with what has been retained from them being dispersed to relevant chapters in this new edition. The criterion for discarding any material was solely that it is now better dealt with in other texts. All of the remaining eight chapters have been revised, some have been extended, and many have been largely rewritten. Although the book is written from a British perspective, issues of learning are global, so the book is still relevant on an international basis, and all of the references to and from other countries which were introduced in the second edition have been retained. The book is not tied to any particular curriculum, though the requirements and constraints of the National Curricula of Britain are fully acknowledged.
The major difficulty in revising the book has been what it has always been, namely that there are so many relevant references relating to the issues of the book, more than could ever be acknowledged without the text taking on some of the characteristics of a catalogue. Once again, I can only apologize to those whose work I have not been able to use.
