Integrating history and philosophy in mathematics education at university level through problem-oriented project work

摘要

Through the last three decades several hundred problem-oriented student-directed projects concerning meta-aspects of mathematics and science have been performed in the 2-year interdisciplinary introductory science programme at Roskilde University. Three selected reports from this cohort of project reports are used to investigate and present empirical evidence for learning potentials of integrating history and philosophy in mathematics education. The three projects are: (1) a history project about the use of mathematics in biology that exhibits different epistemic cultures in mathematics and biology. (2) An educational project about the difficulties of learning mathematics that connects to the philosophy of mathematics. (3) A history of mathematics project that connects to the sociology of multiple discoveries. It is analyzed and discussed in what sense students gain first hand experiences with and learn about meta-aspects of mathematics and their mathematical foundation through the problem-oriented student-directed project work.