Open AccessTeaching mathematics as a way of thinking – not calculating
Author(s) -
Keith Devlin
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
eesti haridusteaduste ajakiri.
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2346-562X
DOI - 10.12697/eha.2021.9.1.02b
Subject(s) - perspective (graphical) , mathematics education , range (aeronautics) , government (linguistics) , mathematics , computer science , epistemology , engineering , artificial intelligence , philosophy , linguistics , aerospace engineering
Important aspects of mathematical thinking are exploring, questioning, working systematically, visualizing, conjecturing, explaining, generalizing, justifying, and proving (but excluding the execution of formal procedures either done by machines or viewed as a “lower-level”, mechanical activity). See, for example, Stacey (2006); Devlin (2012a,b,c); Singh et al. (2018); NRICH (2020).Mathematical thinking is what this essay is about. But before I start, it should be noted that I write from the perspective of a career that spanned both academic research in pure mathematics and the world of applied mathematics, where I worked on a wide range of real-life problems for private industry and government.