Blog Response #8: Was Pythagoras Chinese- Revisiting an Old Debate

 I think it does make a difference to the students’ learning when us as mathematics teachers acknowledge or at least share the discoveries of mathematics from cultures that are not just Euro-centered. One reason is because since Canadian classrooms are diversely multi-cultural, it improves the motivation of students who identify with mathematicians from their own culture to learn. More specifically, if students have role models in math that they can identify with because of commonality of cultural background, they can be proud of their heritage and be motivated to learn to be just like their models. Another reason is giving credit to where it is due models justice, and when students are made aware of this justice in mathematics classrooms, they will be filled with hope to learn. Finally, teachers will also be motivated to teach. Finding ways to incorporate histories of math in their lesson plans will give added purpose to their teaching. This means they will have all their students included, motivated, and being a part of promoting justice, which improves students’ mindset to learn.  

When I studied about theorems, like the Pythagoras Theorem, my understanding was that math only came from Europe. Of course, this understanding was false. I am aware that for some cases it is still unclear of who the originators are for theorems like Pythagoras (Gustafson, 2012, pg. 218), and other theorems. I do not believe that all these theorems should be renamed, which may cause more confusion or will take forever. My only complaint is that the names of these theorems mislead students to believe the misunderstandings that I believed, which I mention earlier in this paragraph. My hope is that more clarity is given instead. What I mean is that when mathematical ideas are introduced in the classrooms, students must also be made aware of similar math ideas from other cultures as well. 

 

References 

Gustafson, R. (2012). Was Pythagoras Chinese- Revisiting an Old Debate. The Mathematics Enthusiast (Vol. 9, No. 1, Article 10), 207-220. http://scholarworks.umt.edu/tme/vol9/iss1/10 

Comments

  1. Amanda FritzlanNovember 10, 2022 at 11:46 AM

    You have some interesting ideas around the role that justice can play in motivating and including students. It may seem like a big job to include histories and acknowledgements for the names of theorems, but a small amount can be quite powerful.

    ReplyDelete

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