Personal reflection for EDCP 442 and the future

EDCP 442 was one of the most interesting courses I have taken at UBC. I think one of the most overlooked aspects in learning mathematics within secondary and post-secondary education is learning about the history of mathematics and origins for different ideas. Knowledge about early civilizations and contributors to the field of mathematics is very beneficial to developing a stronger sense of understanding of how these ideas became theorems and rise of conjectures and proofs.

Moving beyond well-known mathematicians such as Euler, Euclid, Archimedes, Gauss, Fermat, Fourier, (to name a few), and learning about ancient civilizations such as the Babylonians and non-European roots of mathematics was refreshing. It was very thought provoking to learn about how “different” solving mathematical problems in the past were as there were no variables or algebra used how we use them today. Babylonian multiplication, classical Mayan mathematics, Alcuin’s recreational word problems, and problems from medieval Islam have changed the way I see how math problems could be presented. For example, using head/mask variants or different strokes to represent different counts of numbers, or using base 60 to count differently have changed the way I see different representations for numbers. This course has helped me consider different avenues to explore and incorporate in my teaching so that students can get a “bigger picture” of mathematical history beyond well-known mathematicians.  

A suggestion for the course in the future, could be to include more mathematics from an Indigenous perspective. I would be interested in learning how Indigenous cultures use numbers to record different aspects of their lives and how mathematics is rooted in their artwork and designs.

I'd like to thank Amanda and Susan again for all their hard work, feedback, and instruction during this course. I learned a lot and had so much fun attending class!