Modern Mathematical Thought And Middle School Mathematics Education,

This paper provides an approach to the relationship between modern mathematical thought & the teaching of mathematics in high schools. Axiomatism of deduction has always occupied a dominant position in modern mathematics, especrally in pure mathematics, so has the thought of mechanical algorithms. As two main-stream mathematical thoughts,they are playing a great part in the development of modern mathematics education.The first part of this reseach paper deals with the origin & the development history of the above-mentioned theories, analyses their manifestations in modern mathematics & highlights their association-from the association of induction with deduction in content,to that of algorithmization with abstraction in expression,That is to say, much emphasis is put on the mechanical calculation based on the logical deduction. The next part of the paper focuses on some modern mathematical thoughts that are most commonly used in mathematics instruction in high schools.These thoughts include set thought, equation & functional correspondence thought, geometric proof thought, reduction thought, computational thought, limit thought, random thought, global thought, mathematical structure thought, mathematical model thought etc. Some of them belong to the category of axiomatism of deduction,while others the mechanical algorithms. Mathematical thought play a contral role in the content organization of high school teaching & they are directives for a teacher to conduct his teaching plan. At pesent the popularization ofmathematics is the orientation of mathematical education.The percolation of modem mathematical thought enables the students to develop their all-round mathematical ablilities. It helps them to acquire mathematical knowledge, develop their creativity,mode of thinking and a sense of science.This paper provides an attempt to associate the axiomatism of deduction & mechanical algorithms in modern mathematics instruction & put them into practice it also offers some suggestions on the basic methods of implementing modem mechanical thought instruction in the real classroom practice.