rdf-syntax-grammar
mods:
  schema location: http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
  title info:
    title: Rewriting the History of School Mathematics in North America 1607-1861
    sub title: The Central Role of Cyphering Books
  name:
    name part: Ellerton, Nerida.
    role:
      role term: creator
    role:
      role term: author.
  name:
    name part: Clements, M.A. (Ken).
    role:
      role term: author.
  name:
    name part: SpringerLink (Online service)
  type of resource: text
  origin info:
    place:
      place term: ne
    date issued: 2012
    issuance: monographic
  language:
    language term: eng
  physical description:
    form: electronic
    form: electronic resource
    reformatting quality: access
    form: remote
    extent: XVIII, 226 p. online resource.
  abstract: Two centuries ago, American teachers did not stand at the front of the room and teach, and most students—even those studying mathematics—did not own a mathematics textbook. Written examinations of any kind were not used. Most teachers of mathematics did not have formal qualifications in mathematics. The modern educator might well ask: “If all of that is true, then how were teachers expected to teach and how were students expected to learn mathematics?” In this book Nerida Ellerton and Ken Clements argue that before 1840 mathematics was taught in North America via a cyphering approach that had been translated from Western Europe to the new settlements. This approach was based on a tradition that had endured since the thirteenth century, and depended heavily on students carefully writing their mathematics in cyphering books. After 1840, schools gradually adopted more teacher-centered whole-class pedagogies for mathematics instruction, and by the beginning of the Civil War, in 1861, the transformation was complete. In his Foreword to this book, Jeremy Kilpatrick states: “Ellerton and Clements show that the cyphering approach to learning mathematics has both an extensive history and a complex rationale. In the approach, the learner was to become an independent problem solver by learning to identify problems of various types, learning the rules for their solution, solving such problems, having each solution checked by a tutor or teacher and, only when the solution was correct, copying that solution into a cyphering book using exemplary calligraphy. The handwriting process was not meant to be only copying; it was to be an accompaniment to thinking. The learner was not simply inscribing the solution onto paper; he or she was inscribing it into memory. Cyphering books are a much neglected resource for understanding and appreciating the early history of North American mathematics education. The present book marks a major advance in putting that resource to effective use as w…
  table of contents: Preface -- Table of Contents -- List of Tables -- List of Figures -- Abstract -- Foreword (by Jeremy Kilpatrick) -- 1. The Historical Challenge -- 2. Development of a Tradition -- 3. Translating the Cyphering-Book Tradition to North America -- 4. Formulating the Research Questions -- 5. The Principal Data Set -- 6. Ending a 600-Year Tradition: The Demise of the Cypering-Book Approach -- 7. Conclusions, and some Final Comments -- References -- Appendices.
  note: by Nerida Ellerton, M.A. (Ken) Clements.
  subject:
    topic: Education
  subject:
    topic: History
  subject:
    topic: Mathematics
  subject:
    topic: Curriculums (Courses of study)
  subject:
    topic: Education
    topic: Curricula
  subject:
    topic: Mathematics
    topic: Study and teaching
  subject:
    topic: Education
  subject:
    topic: Mathematics Education
  subject:
    topic: History of Mathematical Sciences
  subject:
    topic: Curriculum Studies
  subject:
    topic: History, general
  classification: LC8-6691
  classification: 370
  related item:
    title info:
      title: Springer eBooks
  identifier: 9789400726390
  identifier: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2639-0
  record info:
    record creation date: 120116
    record change date: 20151204180314.0
    record identifier: 978-94-007-2639-0