Awareness of Preservice Mathematics Teachers about Prehistoric and Ancient Number Systems

Nazan Mersin, Mehmet Akif Karabörk, Soner Durmuş

Abstract


This study seeks to analyse the awareness of the pre-service teachers on the counting methods, systems and tools used in the prehistoric method and the Ancient period and to examine the distribution of this awareness by gender. A total of 42 sophomore-level students studying at a university in the Western Black Sea region, Turkey, participated in this exploratory case study. The data were obtained through a form consisting of 6 questions, one of which is open-ended, after the 14-week course of history of mathematics. The data collection tool included questions on the counting methods used in the pre-historic period and the Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Roman, Babylonian, Ancient Greek and Mayan number systems. The data were analysed through descriptive analysis and content analysis. The findings indicated that the pre-service teachers most reported the methods of tallying, tying a knot, token, circular disc. Also, the question on the Ancient Egyptian number system was answered correctly by all pre-service teachers, the lowest performance was observed in the question on the Mayan number system. Analysis of the answers by gender revealed that the male pre-service teachers were more likely to give false answers compared to the female pre-service teachers.

Keywords


Ancient Number Systems; History of Mathematics; Prospective Mathematics Teachers

Full Text:

PDF

References


Basibuyuk, K., & Soylu, Y. (2019). The Effect of Using History of Mathematics in Mathematics Lessons on Mathematics Attitude. Journal of Social Sciences Eskisehir Osmangazi University, 20, 1-15. doi:10.17494/ogusbd.

Carter, M. D. (2006). The Role of the History of Mathematics in Middle School. (Unpublished Masters Thesis), East Tennessee State University, Tennessee, USA.

Cooney, T. J. (1988). The Issue of Reform: What Have We Learned From Yesteryear? The Mathematics Teacher, 81(5), 352-363.

Ersoy, E. (2015). Effect of using history of mathematics on the elementary school 4th grade students' academic success, retention and motivation level. (Unpublished Master Thesis), Adnan Menderes Üniversity, Aydın.

Fauvel, J. (1991). Using History in Mathematics Education. For the Learning of Mathematics, 11(2), 3-6.

Fauvel, J., & van Maanen, J. A. (2006). History in mathematics education: The ICMI study (Vol. 6). New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Furner, J. M. (2008). Mayan mathematics: Connecting history and culture in the classroom. Noticias de Todos, 4(2).

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(2), 223-258.

Ho, W. K. (2008). Using history of mathematics in the teaching and learning of mathematics in Singapore. Singapore Polytechnic, Singapore.

Horton, L., & Panasuk, R. (2011). Raising awareness the history of mathematics in high school curriculum. International Journal of Humanities Social Science, 1(16), 37-46.

Ifrah, G., Bellos, D., Harding, E. F., Wood, S., & Monk, I. (2000). The Universal History of Numbers: From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer. Canada: Wiley.

Jankvist, U. T. (2009). A categorization of the “whys” and “hows” of using history in mathematics education. Educational studies in mathematics, 71(3), 235-261.

Kathumba, C. (2017). Investıgating The Role of History of Mathematical Concepts in Learnıng Mathematics in Upper Secondary School Level in Malawi (Master of Education Thesis), Universty of Malawi, Chancellor College.

Kayan Fadlelmula, F. (2015). Pre-service teachers' point of views about learning history of mathematics: a case study in Turkey. BSHM Bulletin: Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics, 30(3), 243-252. doi:10.1080/17498430.2015.1035585

Kosheleva, O., & Villaverde, K. (2018). How to Enhance Student Motivations by Borrowing from Ancient Tradition: Babylonian Method of Computing the Square Root. In How Interval and Fuzzy Techniques Can Improve Teaching: Processing Educational Data: From Traditional Statistical Techniques to an Appropriate Combination of Probabilistic, Interval, and Fuzzy Approaches (pp. 73-85). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.

Lim, S. Y., & Chapman, E. (2015). Effects of using history as a tool to teach mathematics on students’ attitudes, anxiety, motivation and achievement in grade 11 classrooms. Educational studies in mathematics, 90(2), 189-212. doi:10.1007/s10649-015-9620-4

Liu, P.-H. (2003). Do teachers need to incorporate the history of mathematics in their teaching. The Mathematics Teacher, 96(6), 416-421.

Marshall, G. L. (2000). Using history of mathematics to improve secondary students' attitudes toward mathematics. (Master Thesis), Illinois State University, Illinois.

Mersin, N. (2019). Designing activities related to the history of mathematics for secondary school students and analysis of student reflections on these activities. (Unpublished PhD Thesis), Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal Üniversity, Bolu.

NCTM. (2000). Principles and standards for school mathematics (Vol. 1). Washington: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Seker, S., & Seker, F. (2018). Effect of Accounting in The Emergence of Abstract Counting. World of Accounting Science, 20, 790- 809.

Streb, C. K. (2010). Exploratory Case Study. In A. J. Mills, G. Durepos, & E. Wiebe (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Case Study Research. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publication. Retrieved from https://methods.sagepub.com/reference/encyc-of-case-study-research. doi:10.4135/9781412957397

Tol, H. Y., & Yavuz, A. (2016). Teachers Views Related to Teaching of Mathematics Course Subjects With Their Historical Developments. European Journal of Education Studies(Special Issue), 58-73. doi:10.5281/zenodo.204654

Tzanakis, C., Arcavi, A., de Sa, C. C., Isoda, M., Lit, C.-K., Niss, M., . . . Siu, M.-K. (2002). Integrating history of mathematics in the classroom: an analytic survey. In J. Fauvel & J. Van Maanen (Eds.), History in Mathematics Education: The ICMI Study (pp. 201-240). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

Wilson, P. S., & Chauvot, J. B. (2000). Sound Off!: Who? How? What? A Strategy for Using History to Teach Mathematics. The Mathematics Teacher, 93(8), 642-645.

Yildirim, A., & SimSek, H. (2013). Qualitative Research Methods in Social Sciences. Ankara: Seckin Publication.

Yildiz, C., & Baki, A. (2016). Teachers’ views about factors which affect history of mathematics usage in lessons. Journal of Kirsehir Education Faculty, 17(2).

Yildiz, C., & Gokcek, T. (2013). Using life stories in mathematics teaching. Paper presented at the International Symposium on Changes and New Trends in Education, Necmettin Erbakan University, Konya.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.29103/mjml.v3i2.2904

Article Metrics

 Abstract Views : 266 times
 PDF Downloaded : 71 times

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2020 Nazan Mersin, Mehmet Akif Karabörk, Soner Durmuş

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

CURRENT INDEXING :

Malikussaleh Journal of Mathematics Learning (MJML) are abstracting & indexing in the following databases:

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTEScUl3v2Etgwe2TfFrBLazt810llmwl9VyyFd2lwnNa88qoHn

Malikussaleh Journal of Mathematics Learning (MJML) also has been listed and archives in the following databases: SHERPA/RoMEO Policy, LOCKSS Archieving System, ULRICHSWEB Proquest, EZB Universitat Reqensburq, Open Science Directory by EBSCO information service and ROAD ISSN.