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Seeing is believing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2016

Cathy Smith
Cathy Smith*
Affiliation:
Homerton College, Cambridge CB2 2PH
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Extract

Much of the investigational work that pupils do in schools reduces to a routine of generating data, spotting number patterns and describing those patterns [1]. I will refer to this routine as the inductive approach. Many GCSE candidates only use algebraic notation as an alternative translation of what they have already articulated in words. Yet surely the power of algebra is in its potential for providing proof and suggesting further enquiry, based on the similarity of structure between the algebraic model and the original situation.

Type
Articles
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 81 , Issue 490 , March 1997 , pp. 68 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © The Mathematical Association 1997

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References

1. Hewitt, D., Train spotters’ paradise, Mathematics Teaching 140 (September 1992) pp. 6–8.Google Scholar
2. de Villiers, M., An alternative introduction to proof in dynamic geometry, Micromath 11 No 1 (1995) pp. 14–19.Google Scholar
3. Sutherland, R., The changing role of algebra in school mathematics: the potential of computer based environments, in Dowling, P. and Noss, R. (eds), Mathematics versus the National Curriculum (Falmer) (1990).Google Scholar
4. Nelsen, R. B., Proof without words: exercises in visual thinking, (Mathematical Association of America) (1995).Google Scholar
5. Abbott, S., Algebra with Multilink cubes, Mathematics in School 21(2) (March 1992) pp. 12–13.Google Scholar
6. French, D., Sums of squares and cubes, Mathematics in School 19 (3) (May 1990) pp. 34–37.Google Scholar