Overview
- Focuses on the central role played by modern mathematics in the worldwide reform of school mathematics following the Second World War
- Provides a comprehensive analysis of country-specific motives and related contributions to modern mathematics pedagogies
- Explores how the paradigm of modern mathematics emerged on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1950s and then spread worldwide
Part of the book series: History of Mathematics Education (HME)
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Table of contents (24 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Preparing the Reform on Both Sides of the Atlantic
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Front Matter
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Implementation of the Reform Around the World
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Front Matter
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Keywords
About this book
The international New Math developments between about 1950 through 1980, are regarded by many mathematics educators and education historians as the most historically important development in curricula of the twentieth century. It attracted the attention of local and international politicians, of teachers, and of parents, and influenced the teaching and learning of mathematics at all levels—kindergarten to college graduate—in many nations. After garnering much initial support it began to attract criticism. But, as Bill Jacob and the late Jerry Becker show in Chapter 17, some of the effects became entrenched.
This volume, edited by Professor Dirk De Bock, of Belgium, provides an outstanding overview of the New Math/modern mathematics movement. Chapter authors provide exceptionally high-quality analyses of the rise of the movement, and of subsequent developments, within a range of nations.The first few chapters show how the initial leadership came from mathematicians in European nations and in the United States of America.
The background leaders in Europe were Caleb Gattegno and members of a mysterious group of mainly French pure mathematicians, who since the 1930s had published under the name of (a fictitious) “Nicolas Bourbaki.” In the United States, there emerged, during the 1950s various attempts to improve U.S. mathematics curricula and teaching, especially in secondary schools and colleges. This side of the story climaxed in 1957 when the Soviet Union succeeded in launching “Sputnik,” the first satellite.
Undoubtedly, this is a landmark publication in education. The foreword was written by Professor Bob Moon, one of a few other scholars to have written on the New Math from an international perspective. The final “epilogue” chapter, by Professor Geert Vanpaemel, a historian, draws together the overall thrust of the volume, and makes links with the general history of curriculum development, especially in science education, including recent globalization trends.
Editors and Affiliations
About the editor
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Modern Mathematics
Book Subtitle: An International Movement?
Editors: Dirk De Bock
Series Title: History of Mathematics Education
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11166-2
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Mathematics and Statistics, Mathematics and Statistics (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-11165-5Published: 09 March 2023
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-11168-6Published: 09 March 2024
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-11166-2Published: 08 March 2023
Series ISSN: 2509-9736
Series E-ISSN: 2509-9744
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XLI, 596
Number of Illustrations: 55 b/w illustrations, 68 illustrations in colour
Topics: Mathematics Education, History of Mathematical Sciences, Curriculum Studies, International and Comparative Education