The ‘ crisis’ in mathematics instruction and a new teacher education at grammar school level

Abstract

The present article takes its starting point in the observation, affirmed by several people, that mathematics instruction at all levels is in a ‘ crisis ‘, a crisis of relevance. The paper argues—after having presented a sketch of the function and organization of the existing mathematics instruction—that a necessary condition for the crisis to be dissolved is that the role of mathematics undergoes a radical change, such as that instruction be built up on the basis not of a puzzle‐like but a properproblem‐orientation, where real, complex non‐mathematical problems are subject to mathematical treatment. These considerations are followed up by a valuation of the role and the education of the teacher, concluding that the teacher himself in his education must have worked with such real, complex problems and not only with the theories and methods of mathematics in itself. The paper is concluded with a description of a new mathematics teacher education programme (at grammar school level), which has proper, proble...