Mathematical Practitioners Research Articles

Enhancing Spatial Visualization in CABRI 3D-Assisted Geometry Learning: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Empirical studies related to the enhancement of spatial visualization by implementing CABRI 3D-assisted geometry lesson have been increasingly conducted in two last decade. Nevertheless, from these studies, it can be said that an inconsistent effect of CABRI 3D-assisted geometry lesson toward spatial visualization and a gap of students’ spatial visualization are really existing. The aim of this present study is to examine the effectiveness of CABRI 3D-assisted geometry learning on spatial visualization, and some substantial factors in affecting the difference of students’ spatial visualization skills. A systematic review using meta-analysis was performed to conduct this recent study in which the random effect model was selected to estimate the effect size computed by the Hedges’ equation. 25 eligible documents published between 2008 and 2022 were included as the data whereby these documents generated 36 effect sizes and involved 2,440 students. Several tests, such as Z, Q Cochrane, fill and trim, and funnel plot were performed to analyze the data. Results of this current study showed that the utilization of CABRI 3D software for teaching geometry lesson had positive moderate effect (g = 0.778; p ˂ 0.05), and significantly enhanced students’ spatial visualization. Additionally, the investigation on some substantial factors revealed that intervention duration and class capacity were significant factors affecting the gap of spatial visualization of students while educational level and participant did not differentiate spatial visualization of students. This recent study implies that mathematics practitioners can utilize this software to teach geometry lesson, and consider small class for class capacity and more than 3 months for intervention duration in implementing it to enhance spatial visualization of students.

Training on Developing Powtoon-Based Animated Video Learning Media for Mathematics Practitioners in Mataram

Background. Learning media has a very important role in supporting the acceptance of information conveyed by the teacher to students. Through the media, information will be more easily accepted by students because it looks attractive so that students can focus more on understanding the material. However, based on initial observations in the field, many teachers have not utilized the latest digital media such as Powtoon. Purpose. The media that are commonly used are still in the form of Powerpoint (Ppt) and Student Worksheets. Method. This Community Service Activity (PKM) aims to provide training and assistance in making Powtoon-based animated video learning media for Mathematics academics in Mataram City. This activity was carried out online and was attended by 50 participants who were Mathematics practitioners in the City of Mataram. Results. The result of this community service activity is a Powtoon-based animated video learning media made by each participant. This learning media created is the result of mentoring PKM activities and is the output of these activities. In addition, there was a positive response from the trainees of 91.04% regarding mastery of the material, the technique of delivering the material, suitability of the material and the needs of the trainees, and the completeness and ease of operation of the Powtoon program. Conclusion. Thus, this PKM activity significantly improves the quality of learning mathematics in the classroom. Through this training and mentoring, trainees as Mathematics practitioners in the City of Mataram can produce Powtoon-based animated video learning media that suit students' needs.

Texts, Practice and Practitioners: Computational Cultures at Work in Early Modern South India.

This essay will discuss the hegemonic role that texts have come to play in the historiography of subcontinental mathematical traditions. It will argue that texts need to be studied as records of practices of people's working lives, grounded in social hierarchies. We will take particular mathematical texts to show how different occupational registers have come to shape practices that defy the binaries of concrete and abstract, high and low mathematics or the pure and applied conundrum. Measuring, counting and accounting practices as part of the routine work of practitioners performing their caste occupations then provide us with a spectrum of the computational activities that controlled and regulated the lives of people in the past. In the process the act of computing itself gained certain political values such as cunning and manipulation, identified with professions of village accountant and merchant, for example. Drawn from my earlier work on these records, I discuss the occupational role of the accountant as a political functionary who assessed and authenticated the measurements of land and produce in the village, making values of the labor performed by others, and creating avenues for his own proficiency as a mathematical practitioner.

Content-focused coaches' opportunities for professional learning: The influence of positionality in coach discourse

As content-specific instructional coaching gains theoretical and empirical support, the field needs to better understand how such coaches develop content-specific knowledge and effective coaching practices. Collaborative engagement in mathematics has been found to be a useful support for teachers' professional learning about high-quality mathematics instruction. This discourse analysis explores how collaborative engagement in mathematics might support coaches' development. Since coaches are positioned differently than teachers, we analyze how coaches' discursive positioning while collaboratively engaged in mathematics influences their opportunities for professional learning. Drawing on video and interview data, our analysis highlights that positioning coaches as practitioners of mathematics and as teachers of record opened up opportunities for coaches to empathize with students' thinking and to consider instructional adaptations with respect to this empathetic view. However, coaches were rarely positioned as coaches while collaboratively engaged in mathematics, which constrained coaches' learning opportunities about coaching. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Improving mathematical learning in Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence through problem posing: an integrative review

The purpose of this paper is to explore the importance of problem posing in learning mathematics at the compulsory education level. Despite acknowledging that children have a natural disposition to pose questions, no curricular provision currently exists for the conceptualisation and operationalisation of mathematical problem posing within Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence. In order to provide evidence to support any curricular change, integrative systematic review and narrative synthesis of quantitative and qualitative studies was conducted. Results suggest that problem posing can offer an array of valuable didactic benefits for pupils such as deeper conceptual knowledge, enhanced problem‐solving skills and an increase in the enjoyment of mathematics. Evidence from the qualitative synthesis provides some tentative guidance on considerations regarding the integration of problem posing to the curriculum. This study argues that in order to improve future learning experiences, mathematical problem posing should be embedded in all Scottish classrooms. Furthermore, problem posing is determined to be effective in the pedagogical development of prospective primary and secondary mathematics practitioners.

Academic lexical bundles in graduate-level math texts: A corpus-based expert-approved list

The purpose of this article is to synthesize and analyse the most frequently occurring, widely dispersed and pedagogically useful lexical bundles in mathematical texts. Drawing on a five-million-word corpus of graduate-level textbooks, a total of 65 academic sequences meeting a predefined set of length, frequency and distribution criteria are obtained for functional and structural analyses. Results indicate that the structural forms of the sequences are clausal and that the dominant function is research-oriented. Sequences are rank-ordered according to a composite score obtained as a result of triangulating frequency profiles, distribution proportions and expert judgements. This article concludes by highlighting the pedagogical implications of the study for both language educators and mathematics practitioners.

Motives to participate in an online community for professionals

PurposeAlthough the numbers of online community members continue to increase every day, most of the user-generated content in online communities comes from only a small percentage of members who are motivated to participate and contribute. While studies have been conducted on other professional online communities (e.g. teachers, mathematics practitioners, software developers, etc.), the online community for ServiceNow practitioners is not fully understood. Studies of this group could be useful to organizations that seek to understand ServiceNow practitioners’ motives to participate in these communities, fulfill their specific needs, and build and maintain a thriving community of users.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative case study method was used to learn what motivates ServiceNow practitioners to contribute and participate in ServiceNow communities. Data were collected from interviews with the participants, their stories and testimonials and physical artifacts created and used by them. Data analysis was carried out using data triangulation and continuous coding process.FindingsThree primary motives were identified: find answers to questions or issues, learn about ServiceNow products and services, and share knowledge and expertise with others.Research limitations/implicationsAs a single-case research method was used, findings of this study may not be generalized to a larger population.Originality/valueResults should encourage and increase participation by ServiceNow Community's members, create a repository of knowledge and relationships that can improve their value and effectiveness, and help their organizations maintain competitive advantage.

Mathematical Practitioners and the Transformation of Natural Knowledge in Early Modern Europe, edited by Lesley B. Cormack, Steven A. Walton, John A. Schuster, 2017

Mathematical Practitioners and the Transformation of Natural Knowledge in Early Modern Europe, edited by Lesley B. Cormack, Steven A. Walton, John A. Schuster, 2017

EARLY SCHOOL MATHEMATICS EDUCATION FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF FUTURE TEACHERS. REFLECTIONS AFTER PRACTICAL TEACHING PLACEMENT

The level of competence in mathematics among Polish students is insufficient, as illustrated for instance by low final examination scores in lower and upper secondary schools. Thus, it is only natural to ask questions about whether mathematics is being taught appropriately and whether adequate strategies, methods, and educational principles are being used. In this context it is necessary to ask future teachers – sophomores majoring in preschool and early school education – if they feel prepared and ready to introduce small children to the realm of mathematics. Most future practitioners of this challenging profession dislike mathematics and consider their current professional competences to be average. When assessing students’ preparedness, in both substantive and methodological terms, the author found that reluctance towards mathematics and belief that mathematics is an exceptionally difficult subject are both transferrable. On a more optimistic note, the analyzed group of students are ready to further improve their professional skills through lifelong learning.

Mathematicians on board: introducing lunar distances to life at sea.

Nevil Maskelyne, the Cambridge-trained mathematician and later Astronomer Royal, was appointed by the Royal Society to observe the 1761 transit of Venus from the Atlantic island of St Helena, assisted by the mathematical practitioner Robert Waddington. Both had experience of measurement and computation within astronomy and they decided to put their outward and return voyages to a further use by trying out the method of finding longitude at sea by lunar distances. The manuscript and printed records they generated in this activity are complemented by the traditional logs and journals kept by the ships' officers. Together these records show how the mathematicians came to engage with the navigational practices that were already part of shipboard routine and how their experience affected the development of the methods that Maskelyne and Waddington would separately promote on their return. The expedition to St Helena, in particular the part played by Maskelyne, has long been regarded as pivotal to the introduction of the lunar method to British seamen and to the establishment of the Nautical Almanac. This study enriches our understanding of the episode by pointing to the significant role played by the established navigational competence among officers of the East India Company.

Mathematical Practitioners and the Transformation of Natural Knowledge in Early Modern Europe, by Lesley B. Cormack, Steven A. Walton, John A. Schuster, ed.

Mathematical Practitioners and the Transformation of Natural Knowledge in Early Modern Europe, by Lesley B. Cormack, Steven A. Walton, John A. Schuster, ed.

New theories for new instruments: Fabrizio Mordente's proportional compass and the genesis of Giordano Bruno's atomist geometry

The aim of this article is to shed light on an understudied aspect of Giordano Bruno's intellectual biography, namely, his career as a mathematical practitioner. Early interpreters, especially, have criticized Bruno's mathematics for being “outdated” or too “concrete”. However, thanks to developments in the study of early modern mathematics and the rediscovery of Bruno's first mathematical writings (four dialogues on Fabrizio's Mordente proportional compass), we are in a position to better understand Bruno's mathematics. In particular, this article aims to reopen the question of whether Bruno anticipated the concept of infinitesimal quantity. It does so by providing an analysis of the dialogues on Mordente's compass and of the historical circumstances under which those dialogues were written.

Special Issue on the Power of Fuzzy—Dedicated to the Father of Fuzzy Logic

On September 6, 2017, we lost a great researcher, Prof. Lotfi A. Zadeh, the one who introduced one of the most important mathematical concepts that gets a good rapport with reality. “Fuzzy Sets” was the paper he published in 1965. Many researchers and practitioners of mathematics, science, engineering, medicine, and economics found it fascinating. In Japan, consumer electronics incorporating ambiguity in human thought and behavior became popular. As these products became big topics, the term “fuzzy” also became popular in the 1990s. This set of papers offers a sample of the expanding development of fuzzy logic and soft computing. One review paper is written by Prof. Takeshi Yamakawa, an internationally famous fuzzy researcher of fuzzy hardware systems. Four of these papers were selected through a peer review process. One, “Design of Fuzzy Logic Controller and its Distinctive Features” by Prof. Takeshi Yamakawa, describes the design of a fuzzy logic controller and its application to controlling mouse-platform stabilization. The distinctive features of fuzzy logic control are also discussed. The first original paper, “MMMs-Induced Possibilistic Fuzzy Co-Clustering and its Characteristics” by Ubukata et al., describes an NPCCMM scheme by considering variable cluster volumes and the fuzziness degree of item memberships to investigate the specific aspects of fuzzy rather than probabilistic nature in co-clustering tasks. The second original paper, “Inner Evaluation of Writing in a Foreign Language Based on Expert Judgment for Correction” by Entani et al., proposes a method of numerically deriving each writer’s writing preference from an expert’s initial evaluation. Third, “A 3-Dimensional Fuzzy Linguistic Evaluation Model” by Suprasongsin et al., describes a new model for determining criteria weights in group decision-making problems, a model based on the concept of probabilistic linguistic terms. The fourth original paper, “Natural Language Generation Using Monte Carlo Tree Search” by Kumagai et al., proposes a method for generating simulation-based natural language. The method accounts for both building a correct syntactic structure and reflecting the given situational information as input in the sentences generated. We appreciate Prof. Takeshi Yamakawa for the excellent review of fuzzy controllers. We also thank all of the authors who submitted original articles and all of the reviewers who offered their valuable comments and suggestions.

What is Practical in Mathematical Knowledge? : The Positions of Mining Master J.A.Scheidhauer and Building Master C.F.Steiner Around 1800

This article investigates the notion of 'practical mathematics' and its evolution over the last third of the eighteenth and first third of the nineteenth century. Two detailed case studies, taken together, give asense of both the richness and the difficulties of what practical knowledge could mean at the turn of the nineteenth century. After some preliminary remarks about the institutional context and the social status of practical mathematicians (actually mathematical practitioners) in the German regions the first case study is dedicated to the mining master Johann Andreas Scheidhauer (1718-1784). The biography of this previously unknown mathematical practitioner leads to an analysis of his writings and their reception, after which we analyze the diffusion of his work, most prominently through J.F.Lempe, professor of mathematics at the Freiberg mining academy. The second case study deals with apractitioner from the following generation: the architect Carl Friedrich Steiner (1774-1840), who lived in Weimar as acontemporary of Goethe. In acertain sense his textbook on Geometry descriptive reflects the consequences of the ongoing mathematisation, the status of mathematical knowledge for the training of young artisans and artists. Both case studies provide information about the historical understanding of practical mathematics.

Lesley B. Cormack; Steven A. Walton; John A. Schuster (Editors). Mathematical Practitioners and the Transformation of Natural Knowledge in Early Modern Europe. (Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 45.) xii + 203 pp., figs., bibl. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2017. €95.39 (cloth).

Previous articleNext article No AccessEarly ModernLesley B. Cormack; Steven A. Walton; John A. Schuster (Editors). Mathematical Practitioners and the Transformation of Natural Knowledge in Early Modern Europe. (Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 45.) xii + 203 pp., figs., bibl. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2017. €95.39 (cloth).Catherine Abou-NemehCatherine Abou-Nemeh Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Isis Volume 109, Number 2June 2018 Publication of the History of Science Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/698152 Views: 90Total views on this site © 2018 by The History of Science Society. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Rethinking the Order of Operations (or What Is the Matter with Dear Aunt Sally?)

Shortcomings in the traditional PEMDAS approach to teaching the order of operations suggest a classroom-tested alternative, suitable for advanced students, that conforms more closely to the intuitions of experienced practitioners of mathematics.

The effect of error and regularization norms on strain and damage identification via electrical impedance tomography in piezoresistive nanocomposites

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) has recently emerged as a promising tool for the structural health monitoring (SHM) and non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of piezoresistive nanofiller-modified composites. With few exceptions in SHM and NDE, the vast majority of studies have formulated the EIT problem such that it endeavors to minimize a voltage error vector in the least-squares sense while simultaneously using an additional least-squares term for regularization. Unfortunately, the use of least-squares minimization and regularization has important limitations especially in the context of SHM and NDE. For example, the least-squares error minimization is extremely sensitive to outlier data. Such outlier data is a very real possibility in SHM applications due to damaged electrodes. Additionally, utilizing a least-squares term for regularization renders EIT incapable of resolving discontinuous conductivity changes such as would be induced by fracture events. More sophisticated minimization and regularization techniques that obviate these limitations are well known to medical and mathematical practitioners of EIT; however, these methods have not been explored in SHM and NDE applications. This is an important oversight because the needs of SHM and NDE differ considerably from the needs of medical imaging. Therefore, we herein explore the use of different minimization and regularization norms on EIT for experimental strain identification, detection of artificially induced through-hole damage, and detection of impact damage.

A Discussion about American Mathematics Education from an Administrative Perspective

In this paper we reflect on the roles and responsibilities of academic leaders in encouraging faculty in mathematics departments to value contributions to mathematics teaching and learning. We discuss how academic leaders can and should use their perspective, position and influence to encourage productive dialogue between practitioners of mathematics and mathematics education; to use assessment of student learning as an opportunity to further this dialogue; and to value and reward work in mathematics teaching and learning in the hiring, evaluation, tenure, promotion, and merit processes.

Digital Gesture-Based Games

This study aims to provide an account of phase three of the doctoral process where both students and teachers' views contribute to the design and development of a gesture-based game in Ireland at post-primary level. The research showed the school's policies influenced the supportive Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure, classroom environments influenced a student's ability to participate and teachers' perspectives impacted upon whether they adopted games into their classrooms. While research has been conducted in relation to training schemes for teachers, it is agreed that they are the main change agents in the classroom. Therefore, this study focuses on the game itself and its design elements that support and enhance mathematics education within the Irish context. Practical guidelines for both the game, school's policies and classroom environments are provided based upon the research for mathematics educators and practitioners of game-based learning strategies in their classrooms.

Encountering Early American Environments

The Dividing Line Histories of William Byrd II of Westover Edited by KEVIN JOEL BERLAND Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013 528 pp. American Environmental Fiction, 1782-1847 MATTHEW WYNN SIVILS Surrey: Ashgate, 2014 196 pp. Fatal Revolutions: Natural History, West Indian Slavery, and Routes of American Literature CHRISTOPHER P. IANNINI Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012 320 pp. Scanning programs of most recent conferences of Association for Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE), (1) early Americanist might find few panels of immediate relevance to her or his research. Aside from a few sessions on early modern nature, eighteenth-century forms, and usual suspects of Thoreau, Emerson, Dickinson, and Whitman (these authors perhaps stretching definition of early), ASLE's prominent foci have most recently been squarely, and many would say, rightly, on presentist concerns. These include interrogation of concept of anthropocene, exploration of generic and thematic tendencies of CliFi (climate fiction), incorporation of literatures of justice, and enrichment of field's theoretical contributions by defining and exploring such concepts as multispecies ethnography, affective approaches, biosemiotics, and global indigeneity. Indeed, in a time of crisis, and during a historical moment when many of us are witnessing marginalization of humanities in higher education, such a presentist focus is understandable. Ecocriticism--or, to use its more current and inclusive moniker of environmental humanities--proposes methods, subjects, and extrapolations that make humanities relevant to wider public and also to our students, who sense, correctly, that new epistemologies and ontologies will be necessary for survival in broken they have inherited. Moreover, this relevance has made humanistic studies valuable in instrumental ways as well, appealing to deans; practitioners of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; and funding agencies, making our often solitary work more apparently applicable to challenges of ameliorating climate crisis. This presentist focus within has field-specific roots as well: namely, in its internal critical response to romanticized studies of Anglophone, white male-authored that characterized field's formal beginnings in mid-1990s. As Ursula Heise has shown, at time of its emergence, ecocriticism focused mostly on British and American after 1800, especially British Romantic poetry, American nature-writing tradition from Henry David Thoreau to Annie Dillard, and Native American literature (Globality 637). This limited focus was itself a backlash against denaturalizing emphasis of poststructuralist literary criticism that dominated field between late 1960s and early 1990s: responding to notion that was socially constructed, ecocritics sought to ground (pun intended) our literary analyses in solid earth and the actual world (Heise, Hitchhiker's Guide 505). (2) In doing so, they moved their literary analyses to engage more directly with nonhuman world, whether through phenomenological approaches informed by deep ecology or through scientifically inflected approaches such as bioregionalism (Buell 88-92). These approaches yielded a great deal of work focused on nineteenth-century Anglo-American nature writing and poetry, although this focus was more a matter of seizing low-hanging fruit than it was an inherent quality of early itself (Buell 89). As environmentally inflected literary scholars came of age into an defined in part by its resistance to poststructuralist literary theories, they pushed to expand boundaries of ecocritical analysis and to theorize their critical projects more deliberately. …