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The author aims to help teachers make more individual pedagogical decisions and improve learners’ attitudes toward mathematics and its relevance to real life and technology.",{"@graph":14,"@context":72},[15,34,55],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & 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Universität  \nLinz, Austria  \n\u003C[juergen.maasz@jku.at](juergen.maasz@jku.at)>  \nAbstract  \nFor many people mathematics is something like a very huge and impressive building. It has a given structure with lots of levels and rooms. For many people this structure and therefore mathematics itself is independent from society, culture and history. It exists and mathematicians try to recover (not: to construct!) new parts of it. From this point of view mathematics is often seen as a lifeless and strange thing and not as a living construct of human beings.  \nMany mathematics teachers argue that they can’t change their way of teaching because they see mathematics from this dominant point of view and think that mathematics will not allow changes. Asking what this means they say that mathematics is something independent from them with a fixed structure. Therefore they have to teach little parts of mathematics (often concentrated on the correct use of algorithms) in a fixed sequence. Changing the sequence or leaving out a part seems to be not allowed. So they are not happy with mathematics but they see no way to change mathematics and therefore no way to change their teaching (perhaps except in some minor important methodical aspects) .  \nI think there is a “way out” if mathematics is seen as a social construct. Is this view correct? A new look at the history of mathematics proves that the history of mathematics in the last 200 years looks like a very good example of applying a sociological theory to make a new interpretation of what happens. In more provocative words: If the sociological theory I apply to make my interpretation of the history of mathematics had existed 200 years ago one could think that the mathematicians tried to prove that the sociological theory is correct by forming the history of mathematics in the way the theory “wants”. If teachers try to share this view they will be able to recognize that mathematicians decided what “mathematics” is. I hope this will motivate teachers to make more individual and pedagogical decisions on what and how they teach.  \nIntroduction  \nIn my opinion it is very important for our society to change the image of mathematics, since many studies show that the bad image of mathematics has not changed in past hundred years. On the one hand many adults remember their experience of learning mathematics at school or university as a bad and stressful situation. They did not understand why they should learn to handle all these difficult algorithms. Many teachers have not answered their important “Why?” -question satisfactorily. Teachers often tell their students: “You will understand this later on, after you have learned mathematics!”Many mathematicians as well as educators and teachers of mathematics have criticised this – for example, Felix Klein about a hundred years ago. But the situation has not changed. If we read Klein today (see Klein, 1926, and his contributions to the“Meraner Reform”analysed by Inhetveen, 1976) we have the feeling that he is talking about today’s mathematics lessons.  \n6 Adults Learning Mathematics – an International Journal  \nOn the other hand “too few people recognize, that the high technology so celebrated today is essentially a mathematical technology”, according to Edward E. David, former president of Exxon Research and Development (David, 1984, p. 142) . Mathematics is really a powerful force enhancing technological development and changing society and the lives of everyone:  \n• Mathematics is the basis of the new technologies, since mathematical algorithms are included in all computer software, and computer hardware is materialised mathematical logic.  \n• Increasingly efficient computers with a great variety of software also play an important part in contributing to the growing influence of mathematics, not only indirectly through other sciences, but also directly through the ma","cbCaitfxedjWP1Xh","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaitfxedjWP1Xh","pdf",218376,13,"English","# Introduction\n# The Sociological Theory used in this Article\n# The historical background","[{\"question\":\"Why does the paper say many teachers feel they cannot change their teaching?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that teachers adopt a dominant view where mathematics is independent from society and culture, with a fixed structure, forcing them to teach content in an unchangeable sequence.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the author propose changing the way mathematics is taught?\",\"answer\":\"By viewing mathematics as a social construct and using a sociological interpretation of mathematical history to support more flexible, pedagogical decisions.\"},{\"question\":\"What broader impact does the author claim mathematics has beyond the classroom?\",\"answer\":\"The paper links mathematics to technological development, scientific methods, and societal planning through models and simulation, and notes a mismatch between public opinion and this real influence.\"}]","A New View of Mathematics Will Help Mathematics Teachers | PDF",1792065396,33]