Semiotics in Mathematics Education: Epistemology, History, Classroom, and Culture (Semiotic Perspectives in the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics, 1) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9087905955 ISBN 13: 9789087905958

Publisher: Brill Academic Pub, 2008

Synopsis

Current interest in semiotics is undoubtedly related to our increasing awareness that our manners of thinking and acting in our world are deeply indebted to a variety of signs and sign systems (language included) that surround us. Since mathematics is something that we accomplish through written, oral, bodily and other signs, semiotics appears well suited to furthering our understanding of the mathematical processes of thinking, symbolizing and communicating. Resorting to different semiotic perspectives (e.g., Peirce's, Vygotsky's, Saussure's), the authors of this book deal with questions about the teaching and learning of mathematics as well as the history and epistemology of the discipline. Mathematics discourse and thinking and the technologically-mediated self of mathematical cultural practices are examined through key concepts such as metaphor, intentionality, gestures, interaction, sign-use, and meaning. This book is addressed to mathematics educators, psychologists, educators, and students of mathematics education. About the editors Luis Radford is Full Professor at Laurentian University in Canada. His research interests include the investigation of mathematics thinking and knowing from a cultural-semiotic perspective. For many years he has been conducting classroom research with primary and high-school teachers about the teaching and learning of mathematics as well as the historical and cultural roots of cognition. Gert Schubring is department head at the Institut für Didaktik der Mathematik at Bielefeld University, Germany. His research interests focus on the history of mathematics and the sciences in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and on their systemic interrelation with socio-cultural systems. Falk Seeger is retired from a position of Senior Lecturer at the Institut für Didaktik der Mathematik at Bielefeld University, Germany. His research interests include the analysis of mathematical learning from a cultural-historical perspective. In his current work, he puts a focus on the semiotic roots of intentionality in human development, drawing heavily on Vygotsky's work and on Peirce's ideas. The cover picture comes from Jacob Leupold's (1727) Theatrum Arithmetico-Geometrico. It conveys the cultural, historical, and embodied aspects of mathematical thinking variously emphasized by the contributors of this book.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

This volume discusses semiotics in mathematics education as an activity with a formal sign system, in which each sign represents something else. Theories presented by Saussure, Peirce, Vygotsky and other writers on semiotics are summarized in their relevance to the teaching and learning of mathematics. The significance of signs for mathematics education lies in their ubiquitous use in every branch of mathematics. Such use involves seeing the general in the particular, a process that is not always clear to learners. Therefore, in several traditional frameworks, semiotics has the potential to serve as a powerful conceptual lens in investigating diverse topics in mathematics education research. Topics that are implicated include (but are not limited to): the birth of signs; embodiment, gestures and artifacts; segmentation and communicative fields; cultural mediation; social semiotics; linguistic theories; chains of signification; semiotic bundles; relationships among various sign systems; intersubjectivity; diagrammatic and inferential reasoning; and semiotics as the focus of innovative learning and teaching materials.

About the Author:

Luis Radford is Full Professor at Laurentian University in Canada. His research interests include the investigation of mathematics thinking and knowing from a cultural-semiotic perspective. For many years he has been conducting classroom research with primary and high-school teachers about the teaching and learning of mathematics as well as the historical and cultural roots of cognition.
Gert Schubring is department head at the Institut für Didaktik der Mathematik at Bielefeld University, Germany. His research interests focus on the history of mathematics and the sciences in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and on their systemic interrelation with socio-cultural systems.
Falk Seeger is retired from a position of Senior Lecturer at the Institut für Didaktik der Mathematik at Bielefeld University, Germany. His research interests include the analysis of mathematical learning from a cultural-historical perspective. In his current work, he puts a focus on the semiotic roots of intentionality in human development, drawing heavily on Vygotsky’s work and on Peirce’s ideas.

About this edition

• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 9087905955
• ISBN 13: 9789087905958
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 273
• Editor: Radford Luis, Schubring Gert, Seeger Falk