|
Well Huw, both the advocates of one or other method whose links I
quoted believe there is a significant difference in choice of basic
unit, and certainly from the point of view of the subject matter itself
there is a difference: the concept of cardinal number is different from
the concept of ordinal number, even though the non-mathematical adult
probably never notices it. That distinction was one of the delightful
insighsts I got from reading Anna's book. I knew the difference, but I
just never reflected on it as something a child has to learn. I guess (apart from my question about foundations which I am hoping the experience of a maths teacher will shed light on) I am still working through my lived experience of discovering that the 14 year old kids I was teaching in 1975 who could add, subtract, multiply and even divide, had no concept of numbers as representing quantity, and never knew which arithmetical procedure to use in which practical situation outside of a small range of repeatedly rehearsed scenarios. That is, after 8 years of British public education, they had still not made the leap talked about in the Devlin article, which forms the beginning in Davydov's approach. Andy Huw Lloyd wrote:
--
*Andy Blunden* Joint Editor MCA: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=g932564744 Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/ Book: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857 MIA: http://www.marxists.org |
__________________________________________ _____ xmca mailing list xmca@weber.ucsd.edu http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca