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Uffe Thomas Jankvist has written an article called An empirical study of using history as a ‘goal’ . The article was published online in Educational Studies in Mathematics two days ago. Here is the abstract of his article: This article discusses an empirical study on the use of history as a goal. A historical module is designed and implemented in a Danish upper secondary class in order to study the students’ capabilities at engaging in meta-issue discussions and reflections on mathematics and its history. Based on videos of the implementation, students’ hand-in essay assignments, questionnaires, and follow-up interviews, the conditions, sense, and extent to which the students are able to perform such discussions and reflections are analyzed using a described theoretical framework.

The January issue of Science & Education has been published. One of the articles contained in the issue is of relevance to mathematics education: A Pilot Study of a Cultural-Historical Approach to Teaching Geometry . The article is written by Stuart Rowlands from the University of Plymouth . Here is the abstract of his article: There appears to be a widespread assumption that deductive geometry is inappropriate for most learners and that they are incapable of engaging with the abstract and rule-governed intellectual processes that became the world’s first fully developed and comprehensive formalised system of thought. This article discusses a curriculum initiative that aims to ‘bring to life’ the major transformative (primary) events in the history of Greek geometry, aims to encourage a meta-discourse that can develop a reflective consciousness and aims to provide an opportunity for the induction into the formalities of proof and to engage with the abstract. The results of a pil...

The British Society for the HIstory of Mathematics has published issue 2 of their bulletin this year. This issue contains four interesting articles: Mathematics of currency and exchange: arithmetic at the end of the thirteenth century , by Norman Biggs  Formulating figurate numbers , by Janet L. Beery  Mathematics goes ballistic: Benjamin Robins, Leonhard Euler, and the mathematical education of military engineers , by Janet Heine Barnett  Bernt Michael Holmboe (1795–1850) and his mathematics textbooks , by Andreas Christiansen