Exploring the relationship between high school teachers' mathematics history knowledge and their images of mathematics

This study explored the relationship between high school teachers' mathematics history knowledge and their images of mathematics. The research questions that guided this study were: (1) What images do high school teachers have of mathematics? (2) What do high school teachers know about the history of mathematics? (3) What is the relationship between high school teachers' mathematics history knowledge and their images of mathematics?; To explore these questions, a survey instrument was distributed to 900 public high school mathematics teachers at 300 randomly selected high schools in California. One hundred ninety-three responses were received.; It was found that the images of mathematics held by the respondents were more consistent with the views of the NCTM than those found by previous studies conducted on secondary teachers in the 1980s and 1990s. Overall, most respondents believed mathematics is connected to the real world; the ability to investigate a new problem is more important than knowing facts; mathematics makes a unique contribution to human knowledge; mathematics is for everyone and alive; and the process of trying to prove a mathematical relationship can change your mind about it.; Over half of the respondents reported that they had taken history of mathematics courses and over three-fifths of respondents reported that they read mathematics history during their spare time. The median score on the mathematics history test was about 63%. Over 67% of respondents knew at least half of the correct answers on the mathematics history test.; Significant relationships between the mathematics history score and images were found. History score seemed to be related to teachers' views on mathematics overall. Additionally, teachers with high history scores were more likely to believe that investigating is more important than knowing facts, mathematics is for everyone, ongoing and shows cultural differences. Teachers with low history scores were more likely to believe that mathematics is a collection of facts, rules and skills.; It appears that reform efforts in California are affecting teachers' images of mathematics. It also seems as though California teachers value mathematics history and that the inclusion of mathematics history in teacher training programs would be beneficial.