APPRECIATING MATHEMATICS

Students appreciate the role mathematics has had, and continues to have, in their own

and other communities. In particular, they:

1.Show a disposition to use mathematics to assist with understanding new situations, solving problems and making decisions, showing initiative, flexibility and persistence when working mathematically and a positive attitude to their own continued involvement in learning and doing mathematics.

Students respond positively to their own use of mathematics and are inclined to ask, ‘Will mathematics help here?’, even in situations where it is not specifically required of them. For example, unprompted they count to decide whether they have enough straws for their classmates, use ideas about symmetry when classifying plants, work out their chances of winning a game with different strategies, and sketch a graph to help

understand a paragraph in a textbook which describes a relationship between unemployment and immigration.

Students understand that they will continue to learn and use mathematics for all of their lives, and have confidence in their capacity to do so. They are willing to learn from others by listening to, and observing, the mathematical activity of peers, teachers and families. They appreciate, however, that working mathematically also, and often, involves finding out for themselves. They persist with mathematical tasks, pose mathematical questions, make conjectures, try alternatives and pursue different ideas. They also read mathematics to explore mathematical ideas which they have not explicitly been taught and to understand material containing mathematical ideas. Confronted with a situation in which mathematics they have not yet learned might

help, they do not retreat but rather are inclined to believe that they can learn what they need or want to know.

2. Appreciate that mathematics has its origins in many cultures, and its forms reflect specific social and historical contexts, and understand its significance in explaining and influencing aspects of our lives.

Students appreciate that mathematics is developed by people of all cultures in response to practical, aesthetic and spiritual needs, and that it is influenced by, and influences, our world views. They explain, for example, how they and others use mathematics in regulating their lives: at school we eat when the clock says 12 o’clock; in netball we have to stay within the semicircle when shooting a goal; and we are admitted to

higher education if our ‘score’ exceeds a certain number. They also comment on how such uses of  mathematics both reflect and influence the way we live and the things we value. Students might describe how the need for a form of social organisation adapted to local conditions led to Aboriginal kinship systems that can be seen as mathematical in nature. They might also describe the impact of the collection of public statistics on the daily lives and thinking of all Australians, consider how they may be used to legitimise authority structures, and analyse the ethical implications of such uses in respect of human rights and social justice.

Students understand something of the nature, power and scope of mathematical activity and respect its origins in human intuition, creativity and reason. They appreciate the intellectual leap people needed to make to invent zero, understand why people gain pleasure from number and spatial patterns, and recognise the special nature of mathematical argument. Students take a constructively critical view of the uses of mathematics, identifying situations where mathematics can enhance their own and others’ lives, but also where it is misused or used to mislead or intimidate.