الخميس، 6 مارس 2014

Article Review: Purposes and methods of research in mathematics education

Article Review
Purposes and methods of research in mathematics education

from http://www.stephenhicks.org

Schoenfeld, A. (2000). Purposes and methods of research in mathematics education. Notices of The AMS, 47(6), 641-649.

The author of this article tries to lay out some of the important perspectives in mathematics education and looks at the background information regarding its nature of inquiry. The author tries to explore some of the issues regarding mathematics education and starts by looking at the purpose of research in this education. Research would prove that there is a great difference between education and mathematics in many respects (Schoenfeld, 2000).

The author points out two main purposes of conducting research in mathematics education. The first one states that research is useful in the sense that it fosters understanding to the nature of mathematics teaching, learning and thinking. The second purpose of research is to use it to improve instructions in mathematics. Both are related and equally important.

The importance of research in mathematics education is diverse. One of the benefits of research is in the provision of theoretical perspectives for understanding the learning and teaching processes. It is also important in that it gives an understanding of such aspects of cognitions as the students’ abilities to understand or not understand concepts of limit and function.

The author argues that the results are rarely definitive but suggestive. They are not meant to provide proof but provide cumulative evidence that could be considered beyond reasonable doubt. A scientific approach could be applied but one should be careful not to overuse it. Experimental methods are not of great importance but what counts is the use of reasoning and standard of evidence.


Some theories have proposed that if students were to be given an introduction to information that they are to read, and information that gives them an idea of what is to follow, their comprehension of the subject would improve significantly.

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