The development of a practical activity in the discipline of history of mathematics education of the degree course in mathematics

Abstract

The study of the History of Mathematics Education is something recent that has been growing in research in recent years, seeking to provide the spheres of research, discipline and teacher training with a better understanding of the different representations, meanings and organization of mathematical content over time. Therefore, it is assumed that one can best teach what one understands, and it is known why they were organized that way. Based on the importance of the subject of History of Mathematics Education, this study was carried out with the aim of finding out students' perceptions of the organization of mathematical knowledge between the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, based on an activity applied in this subject. To this end, the qualitative, bibliographic and documentary research consisted of the production and application of three activities with mathematics undergraduates enrolled in the History of Mathematics Education subject in the 2022.2 and 2023.1 semesters. This article focuses on the third activity, which aimed to analyze the external elements, structure and organization of 19th and 20th century mathematics textbooks so that, at the end of the process, a comparison could be made with other 21st century mathematics textbooks. Thus, this study allowed students to glimpse mathematics in different times and its organization, in order to understand how it developed.