Action Research On Integrating History In Teaching Logarithms

Logarithms appear in any algebra textbook. It’s a bedrock of logarithmic function. In modern times, middle school students have to learn it. Students often meet difficulty in learning logarithms. In textbooks, it’s used to go after exponents, whereas logarithms are born earlier than exponents. We wonder if the differences between learning sequences and the order in history lead to the difficulties.It’s an action research. Cases of integrating history to teaching concept of logarithms were developed by researchers from academy and middle school teachers. It’s comprised of three rounds major study and two extending studies. It aims to analyze the impact to students under the design with history and the impact to a teacher who has experienced the developing process.With the history integrated, students know the simplifying function, and it helps students learn about the operating properties. Students work on finding the relation between x and 2x, and they use it to compute operations with big numbers. Students are inspired by the story of Napier, and know that the development of mathematics is a changing process.The way that researchers and teachers in practice cooperating with each other is quite an effective way by which the researchers provide fruitful history materials and the teachers use of them effectively under their experiences.