Preliminary reflections

on the nature and practice

of math
1 Presented by: Mejia Aira Maria E. Mata
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ABSOLUTE NATURE OF MATHEMATICS

• Ernest (1991) mentioned that the absolutist nature of

mathematics portrays knowledge as the certain and
unchangeable truth.
• Absolutist nature of mathematical knowledge is based on
axioms and definition (Ernest, 1991) which is fixed,
unchangeable and objective.

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FALLIBILIST NATURE OF MATHEMATICS

• Ernest (1991) mentioned that mathematical truth is fallible
and corrigible and open to revision.
• It also challenges the absolutist nature of mathematics.
• It focused on revision, revisiting, and claimed that
knowledge is subjective.
• The major source of fallibilist nature of mathematics is
Wittgenstein’s philosophy where he described
mathematics as a language game (Lerman, 1990).
• One of the innovations associated with a fallibilist view of
mathematics is a reconceptualised view of the nature of
mathematics.

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NATURE OF MATHEMATICS
AS IMPURE KNOWLEDGE

• Luitel (2012) has discussed the nature of

mathematics as impure knowledge.
• While doing this he subscribed the soil metaphor
which connects the relationship between people,
culture, and land.
• Luitel (2012) mentioned that, mathematics is an
impure knowledge system which helps to
empower the inclusive nature of mathematics.

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CULTURAL NATURE
OF MATHEMATICS

• D’Ambrosio (2001) mentioned that

ethnomathematics is used to express the relation
between culture and mathematics.
• Cultural nature of mathematics has been talked
about as the mathematics that helps to connect
human beings and mathematics

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In his 1994 essay, “Literacy in the Language of Mathematics,”

cancer researcher Dr. James Bullock says,

“Mathematics is not a way of hanging numbers on real things so that

quantitative answers to ordinary questions can be obtained. It is a
language that allows one to think about extraordinary questions...
Getting the picture does not mean writing the formula or crunching
the numbers, it means grasping the metaphor.”
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Literacy expert Kelly Gallagher, in his 2004 book Deeper Reading,

says:

“When you empower your students to compare their before and

after actions when solving problems and to identify their “givens”
when finding the unknown, you allow them not only to see the big
picture but to grasp the mathematical metaphor. Teaching students
to think metaphorically sharpens their interpretative skills and helps
them reach deeper understanding. In this way, students are taught
critical thinking skills that stay with them long after the last lesson of
the school year.”
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The government of New Zealand, Ministry of education (2006),

mentioned in their school curriculum that the nature of mathematics
is the exploration and uses of patterns and relationships in
quantities, space, and time, way of thinking and solving problems
that equips students with effective means for investigating,
interpreting, explaining, and making sense of the world in which they
like.
 References
Luitel, L. (2019). Nature of Mathematics and Pedagogical Practices.
ResearchGate.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331113612_Natur
e_of_Mathematics_and_Pedagogical_Practices
Bullock, J. (1994, October). Literacy in the Language of
Mathematics. The American Mathematical Monthly, 101(8),
3. https://bit.ly/3AioU3O
Gallagher, K (2004). Deeper reading: comprehending challenging
texts, 4-12. Stenhouse Publishers. https://bit.ly/39gwMam