The interweaving of reading as a mode of learning and mathematics as a way of knowing in geometry

This study focused on reading as a mode of learning and mathematics as a way of knowing. Reading literature was interwoven into a mathematics geometry classroom over an entire school year. Two books, Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott and its sequel Sphereland by Dionys Burger, were selected and used because rich mathematics is interwoven throughout the stories. This study examined the effect interweaving had on students' beliefs about and attitudes towards mathematics as a discipline and their perceptions of their performance. The participants were all young women from a single-sex high school, primarily sophomores along with several freshmen.;Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used in this study. In order to gather data about their attitudes, beliefs and perceptions, a grounded survey was administered in September and May to two groups: a treatment and a non-treatment group. Various student documents available only for the treatment group were analyzed. The thrust of the study was to compare within the treatment group from September to May and to compare between groups.;The students who experienced the interweaving of literature into their geometry class expanded their view of mathematics. Mathematics was now a process, a way of knowing. They saw an increase in the relevancy of mathematics to the real, everyday world. They felt an increase in value for their ideas in mathematics, more so than in English. Attitudes towards, beliefs about, and perceptions of mathematics became more positive as a result of the union of mathematics and English. There was a constant and continuing transaction taking place among the learner, the text, and the context. Each contributed to the other in an on-going process and none of them remained unchanged in the process. Through the transactions, students explored the nature of mathematics, mathematics as a process and mathematical concepts. The result was reading was a mode of learning and mathematics was a way of knowing in geometry.