Teaching With and About the Nature of Mathematics through the History of Mathematics: Enacting Inquiry Learning in Mathematics

Abstract

The purpose of the present papaer is two-fold: 1) to explore how university (teacher) students of mathematics, through history (and philosophy) of mathematics, can develop informed conception about the epistemology of mathematics, of how mathematicians produce mathematical knowledge, what kind of questions that drive mathematical research and how mathematical research is validated, while experiencing an inquiry learning environment that gives them insight into authentic mathematical practice in mathematics as a science; and 2) to illustrate how such students are capable of teaching in upper secondary school with and about the nature of mathematics within an explicit-reflective framework in the sense of the American educator Fouad Abd-El-Khalick (2013) by endorsing learning environments that to some extent and in some sense bear resemblance to authentic mathematical practices, that is, by establishing inquiry learning environments in mathematics as a science.