All Positive Action Starts with Criticism: Hans Freudenthal and the Didactics of Mathematics

Hardcover, xv + 386 pages, NOT ex-library. Book is clean and bright with unmarked text, free of inscriptions and stamps, firmly bound. Boards show mild handling wear. Issued without a dust jacket. -- Contents: 1 Introduction: "A Way to Master This World" [Didactics of Mathematics and H.Freudenthal: Definition of the Problem & Phrasing of the Question; Don Quixote: Freudenthal Myth?; Research Method: Use of Freudenthal's Personal Archive; Nature of the Study and the Historiography; Structure of This Book] 2 Mathematics Education in Secondary Schools and Didactics of Mathematics in the Period Between the Two World Wars [Secondary Education in the Period Between the Two World Wars; Discussions on the Mathematics Education at the VHMO] 3 H.Freudenthal: A Sketch [Freudenthal: An Impression; Luckenwalde; Berlin; Amsterdam; Utrecht] 4 Didactics of Arithmetic [Dating of 'Rekendidactiek'; Cause & Intention; Teaching of Arithmetic in Primary Schools; Freudenthal's 'Rekendidactiek': The Content; 'Rekendidactiek' ('Didactics of Arithmetic'): All Positive Action Starts with Criticism] 5 New Start [Educating; Higher Education; Wiskunde Werkgroep (Mathematics Working Group)] 6 From Critical Outsider to True Authority [Mathematics Education & Education of the Intellectual Capacity; Body Under the Floorboards: Mechanics Education; Preparations for a New Curriculum; Probability Theory and Statistics: A Text Book; Paedagogums, Paeda Magicians and Scientists: Teacher Training; Freudenthal Internationally] 7 Freudenthal and the Van Hieles' Level Theory: A Learning Process [Introduction: A Special PhD Project; Freudenthal as Supervisor; 'Problems of Insight': Van Hiele's Level Theory; Freudenthal and the Theory of the Van Hieles: From 'Level Theory' to 'Guided Re-Invention'; Analysis of a Learning Process: Reflection on Reflection; To Conclude] 8 Method vs Content: New Math & Modernization of Mathematics Education [Introduction: Time for Modernization; New Math; Royaumont: Bridge Club with Unforeseen Consequences; Freudenthal on Modern Mathematics & Its Meaning for Mathematics Education; Modernization of Mathematics Education in the Netherlands; Geometry Education; Logic; Freudenthal & New Math: Conclusion] 9 Here's How Freudenthal Saw It [Introduction: Changes in the Scene of Action; Educational Studies in Mathematics (Not Exactly Bursting with Enthusiasm: The Launch; Freudenthal as Guardian of the Level); Institute for the Development of Mathematics Education (From CMLW to IOWO; Freudenthal & the IOWO); Exploring the World from the Paving Bricks to the Moon; Observations as a Source; Enfant Terrible (Weeding; Drumming on Empty Barrels; Freudenthal on Piaget: Admiration and Merciless Criticism); Task for the Future] 10 Epilogue: We Have Come Full Circle; Bibliography; Index -- This study provides a historical analysis of Freudenthal's didactic ideas and his didactic career. It is partly biographical, but also contributes to the historiography of mathematics education and addresses closely related questions such as: what is mathematics and where does it start? Which role does mathematics play in society and what influence does it have on the prevailing views concerning its accompanying didactics? Hans Freudenthal (1905-1990), professor in mathematics, scientist, literator, but above all mathematics-educator, was inextricably linked to the changes which took place in mathematics education and didactics during the second half of the last century. His diversity as a scientist and his inexhaustible efforts to establish the didactics of mathematics as a seriously pursued science, made Freudenthal's influence in this area considerable. He foresaw an essential, practical role for mathematics in everyone's life, encouraging students to discover and create mathematics themselves, instead of imposing a ready-made mathematical system. The theory of mathematics education thus developed in the Netherlands would gain world fame in the following decades. …