Abstract
In this paper, I discuss emotions related to a person's control (or lack of control) of his/her mathematics:
sense of danger; sense of security; confidence, feeling of strength; feeling of power;
which eventually lead to the ultimate emotion of mathematics:
realisation that you know and understand something that no-one else in the world knows or understands – and that you can prove that.
These higher level emotions are not frequently discussed in the context of
mathematics education – but, remarkably, they are known not only to professional research mathematicians, but also experienced by many children in their first encounters with mathematics.
And I dare to suggest that there is another overarching emotion well known to many professional mathematicians: the feeling of a deep connection with the "inner child''. I will focus on a child's perception of mathematics, but will start my narrative from a prominent episode in the history of "adult'' mathematics.
sense of danger; sense of security; confidence, feeling of strength; feeling of power;
which eventually lead to the ultimate emotion of mathematics:
realisation that you know and understand something that no-one else in the world knows or understands – and that you can prove that.
These higher level emotions are not frequently discussed in the context of
mathematics education – but, remarkably, they are known not only to professional research mathematicians, but also experienced by many children in their first encounters with mathematics.
And I dare to suggest that there is another overarching emotion well known to many professional mathematicians: the feeling of a deep connection with the "inner child''. I will focus on a child's perception of mathematics, but will start my narrative from a prominent episode in the history of "adult'' mathematics.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Understanding Emotions in Mathematical Thinking and Learning |
| Editors | U. Xolocotzin |
| Place of Publication | San Diego |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV |
| Chapter | 3 |
| Pages | 77-96 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9780128024898 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780128022184 |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 |