| In The Standard of Mathematics Curriculum of Senior High School, published in April 2003, selected historical topics are adopted into the mathematics curriculum of senior high school. It is for the first time that the history of mathematics has become a part of the high school mathematics curriculum in our country. How to teach these topics is an important task facing the mathematics teachers in senior middle schools.This thesis makes an empirical study on the choice and presentation of the historical topics. Three topics are choosen for case study: Pythagorean polygonal numbers, the treasure of ancient Chinese mathematics--the yangma Rule, the birth of the analytical geometry. A questionnaire survey was conducted to 272 high school mathematics teachers and 535 preservice mathematics teachers in order to get their opinions about the course of the history of mathematics.It is revealed that most teachers haven't taught the selected historical topics, but they are willing to teach them in the future. Their favorite topics are Pythagorean polygonal numbers, the treasure of ancient Chinese mathematics- the yangma Rule, the birth of the analytical geometry and the birth of the calculus. High school mathematics teachers hold positive attitudes towards the selected historical topics and the aforesaid three teaching designs. Most of them agree that the historical topics will be helpful to the learning of compulsory courses, and several principles should be considered while selecting the teaching materials of the relevant historical topics, namely, those of acceptability, interest, practicality, scientificity and maneuverability. Moreover, most of the preservice teachers are willing to teach the history of mathematics in the future.Finally, some suggestions were given about the instruction of the history of mathematics. |
