Mathematical ideas and indigenous languages

Recent interest in how anthropology and linguistics relates to mathematics has led to recognition that mathematical thinking is a function of language in ways not previously recognised. Ethnomathematics, cognitive linguistics, and anthropology are all pointing to a way of understanding mathematical ideas based on human experience and cultural activities. Formal mathematics can be seen to have developed from metaphors deeply embedded in our languages. This raises the question of relativity in mathematics. Do different languages embody different types of mathematics? This chapter examines some emerging evidence in the grammar and syntax of indigenous languages, i.e. languages structurally very different from the Indo-European linguistic tradition. The educational consequences of the possibility of different mathematical thinking is briefly discussed.

ON CREATIVITY THROUGH MATHEMATIZATION IN SOLVING NON-ROUTINE PROBLEMS

This study aimed to describe and compare the students’ fluency, flexibility, and originality in solving non-routine problems in the Palembang context. They were depicted from the student’s fluency, flexibility, and originality of solving the horizontal and vertical mathematization forms. This qualitative study employed. The subjects of this study were 30 students of grade nine of junior high schools in Palembang. The instruments used were tests and interviews. The tests were employed to investigate the written horizontal and vertical mathematizations forms. Meanwhile, the interviews were to explore the students’ ideas with inadequately detailed answers. Then, the test and interview data were reduced and grouped based on the indicators of creativity. The reduced data were presented in a descriptive form for conclusions. The results of the data analysis showed that the high-ability students were the most fluent and flexible in solving the problems. Still, the provided solutions were less original and tended to use formal mathematics in the forms of formulas, symbols, and operations. Meanwhile, the moderate-ability students tended to start to solve problems by simplifying them, then presenting them in visual images. The answer sheets of the moderate-ability students revealed their fluency in understanding the problems and solutions, flexibility, and originality of thinking. This study obtained different results from the low-ability students who tended to have difficulties understanding the problems and made many errors in solving them. Such a condition showed their inability to write the known data and relate the data to other facts they had already learned. As a result, their answers did not represent fluency, flexibility, and originality.

Examining the Guji Oromo Ethnomathematical Games and Concepts

This chapter explores how the Guji Oromo people undertake ethnomathematical activities by applying their indigenous methods. Ethnomathematical activities include counting, locating (the activity of grouping, clustering, making network, etc.), measuring (the actions of quantifying, weighting, etc.), designing (planning, building, and pattern activities), playing (puzzles, paradoxes, models, games, hypothetical reasoning), and explaining (how to do things, activities [e.g., classifications, conventions, generalizations, and symbolic explanations]). This predominantly qualitative study identifies the indigenous ethnomathematical games and concepts and assesses the potential effectiveness of an integration of the ethnomathematics and formal mathematics on the learning/teaching experiences of pupils and teachers. Impacts of such integration on pupils' performance in mathematics assessment are examined. Such an action could enable to amalgamate the Western knowledge system with an African knowledge system to create synergy that might boost the quality of primary mathematics education in Ethiopia.

ETHNOMATHEMATICS THOUGHT AND ITS INFLUENCE IN MATHEMATICAL LEARNING

Mathematics is a symbol of rationality and the highest intellectual achievements of human civilization. Mathematics has always been seen as abstract and formal knowledge. However, in the last few decades, the idea has emerged that mathematics is a knowledge that develops in human cultural activities. The concept of mathematics in culture is widely known as ethnomathematics. This paper aims to briefly describe the history, criticism, and challenges of ethnomathematics, the thoughts of ethnomathematics experts, and their influence in learning mathematics today. The development of ethnomathematics gave rise to a field of study covering aspects of anthropology and the history of mathematics, non-formal mathematics practice, traditional mathematics, and multicultural learning. Various research results indicate that ethnomathematics contributes to improving school mathematics. Although culture has an important role in learning mathematics, to integrate it requires comprehensive efforts to overcome various obstacles. Teachers need to improve competencies related to understanding local culture to maximize the transformation of ethnomathematics learning in the classroom.

Supporting nursing students’ mathematical understanding

A key component of any nursing course is the ability to confidently, and competently, use basic mathematical skills. Indeed, without such skills they would be unable to work safely and successfully in the profession (McMullan, Jones, and Lea, 2012; Choudhary and Malthus, 2017). Furthermore, many nursing students come on to their courses having not studied any form of formal mathematics for years and are very likely to have some form of maths anxiety (McMullan, Jones, and Lea, 2012). sigma Maths Support at Coventry University have developed a programme, in partnership with the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences (HLS), to support these students with their mathematical skills using a variety of small interventions. The interventions require little time and effort to prepare and have proven to be very successful. This article will discuss the methods used, including diagnostic testing, the use of ‘Numbas’, and self-explanation training (as described in Hodds, 2017), alongside the outcomes of the programme.

Kaitan antara Etnomatematika dan Matematika Sekolah: Sebuah Kajian Konseptual

The awareness that mathematics exists at the respective culture needs to be developed in students’ mind through the integration of ethnomathematics at school. School mathematics is different from pure formal mathematics, while ethnomathematics studies pure informal mathematics as well as applied mathematics. This article contains conceptual reviews focused on the comprehension and scope of ethnomathematics, as well as some views on school mathematics to find out the connection between ethnomathematics and school mathematics, also the role of ethnomathematics in school mathematics. The philosophical foundation that connects ethnomatematics and school mathematics is the nature of mathematics as a social construction. Based on this view, it is identified that there are three connections between ethnomatematics and school mathematics, namely ethnomatematics as a learning object of school mathematics, bridge of informal knowledge leading to formal mathematics, and didactic or pedagogical foundations of school mathematics.

Understanding Significance Testing as the Quantification of Contradiction: Conceptual and Practical Foundations of Statistics in the Context of Experimental Research

This evolving document is my combination essay-tutorial-manifesto on foundational concepts of statistics for experimental research, primarily meant to help strengthen statistical thinking using programming and simulated experiments to make concepts concrete, rather than formal mathematics. It further aims to explain and justify the role of null hypothesis significance testing in experimental research. It’s not an introductory textbook, but more something to read alongside or after undergraduate modules. It also provides an introduction to data analysis and simulation using Python and NumPy.