The pedagogy of mathematics

The teaching of mathematics proceeds from simple calculations to complex conceptualisations. As numerical figures and symbols and shapes morph towards complex abstractions, there seems to be a `natural selection' in society between a few who experience sheer joy from the subject and phobia for the majority. Today, the world places great value on mastering mathematics as a basis for integration into the world of work in a global epoch of rapid technological change. Thus, understandably, most nations obsess about their ability to impart and absorb mathematical knowledge. Global comparative studies on that issue are taken as grounds for national pride and self-perceptions of intelligence. Sheer horror greets poor outcomes; the empirical and the substantive merge into a confounding vortex of misconceptions. Finger-pointing and hyperbole ensue, and politics enters the fray in its most shameful and destructive forms. Post-1994, South Africa has had its own share of self-flagellation. There has been much research on the reasons behind the country's poor comparative performance. While there have been some improvements in the recent period, those are barely enough. This book on the pedagogy of mathematics reasserts some of the findings of previous studies. Those relate to: the impact of a racist system that perversely reckoned that keeping mathematical knowledge from the oppressed would prove their supposed inferiority; the relevance of the language of teaching; changing school curricula, and the questions of how to speed up movement from universal access to better outcomes. The authors go beyond that to pose the simple but telling question: why, at all, do we teach mathematics, and what is its actual utility to life? As this book clearly reveals, teaching mathematics through dialogue that is linked to a concrete social environment is fundamental to speeding up the improvements South Africa has started to experience. So are the joint efforts of government, the unions, and private partners to improve the situation.