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Teaching Mathematics: Ritual, Principle and Practice
Author(s) -
Solomon Yvette
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of philosophy of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9752
pISSN - 0309-8249
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9752.00102
Subject(s) - philosophy of education , sociology , mathematics education , higher education , library science , social science , psychology , political science , computer science , law
One of the criticisms of standard teaching practices is that they support merely ‘ritual’ as opposed to ‘principled’ knowledge, that is, knowledge which is procedural rather than being founded on principled explanation. This paper addresses issues and assumptions in current debate concerning the nature of mathematical knowledge, focusing on the ritual/principle distinction. Taking a discussion of centralism in logic and mathematics as its start‐point, it seeks to resolve these issues through an examination of mathematics as a community of practice and the teacher's role as epistemological authority in inducting pupils into such practices.