Invitation to Didactique PDF
Preview Invitation to Didactique
SPRINGER BRIEFS IN EDUCATION Virginia McShane Warfi eld Invitation to Didactique 123 SpringerBriefs in Education For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/8914 http://avaxhome.ws/blogs/ChrisRedfield Virginia McShane Warfi eld Invitation to Didactique SpringerBriefs in Education olumes:or further vF .com/series/8914 .springerhttp://www http://avaxhome.ws/blogs/ChrisRedfield Foreword Half a century ago, the French word d idactique, like its counterpart d idactic in English, was an adjective with two meanings. The fi rst was the neutral “intended to instruct,” and the second was the pejorative “overly inclined to lecture others.” Today, through the efforts of French researchers in mathematics education, d idac- tique ( des mathématiques ) has been given a third meaning: as a noun denoting a fi eld that studies questions raised by teaching and learning (of mathematical knowl- edge) in the milieu of school. D idactique has expanded during the past several decades across national borders and, through many translations, beyond the French- speaking community of mathematics educators. Nonetheless, despite a rich and growing literature base, it has as yet had only modest infl uence in the Anglophone world. Ginger Warfi eld has played a pivotal role in translating into English much of the pioneering work in the fi eld of didactique over the past decades. In the volume at hand, she introduces the reader with an interest in mathematics education but unfa- miliar with the abstruse literature of didactique to basic ideas of the fi eld coming from its genesis in the theory of didactical situations. Resonating in this book is the lucid, knowledgeable voice of one who appreciates the complexity of d idactique while being able to express in compelling language its power and promise. Welcome to a realm of mathematics education that you may have only glimpsed fragments of until now but that represents an extensive share of the best thinking we have con- cerning how mathematics is and can be taught. A thens, GA, USA Jeremy Kilpatrick v SpringerBriefs in Education olumes:or further vF .com/series/8914 .springerhttp://www http://avaxhome.ws/blogs/ChrisRedfield viii Preface to the 2013 Edition One consequence of the writing of the book has been that my own understanding of and fascination with the fi eld have deepened. It was therefore with some trepida- tion that I picked up this book to check it over for this edition. To my relief, nothing revealed itself as false. There are nuances and depths missing, but then again the book has always been intended as a primer, not an in-depth study. Only one glaring gap leapt to my eye, and I shall take this opportunity to fi ll it: in 2003, Guy Brousseau was awarded the fi rst Felix Klein Medal of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction, recognizing his outstanding lifetime achievements in mathematics education research. For me, this was doubly positive. On the professional front, it was a confi rmation of the belief I had long held of the importance of Brousseau’s work. And on a personal front, it was a joy that interna- tional recognition was being given to someone for whom my great respect is aug- mented by a great affection. Preface to the 2007 Edition Five or six years ago, at a meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Carolyn Maher and I had what turned out to be a high-impact conversation. We were discussing the work of Guy Brousseau—how much we both liked it, and how frus- trated we were that the book that had been published in 1996 was proving diffi cult of access to many genuinely interested English speakers. “Someone,” she said, fi x- ing me with a penetrating eye, “needs to write a short, easy-to-read monograph that provides the information needed for reading the book itself. I would see to it that it got published.” It was immediately clear to me that she was right. It was also clear to me, given that I have had the great privilege of working closely with Brousseau for several years, who the “someone” needed to be. This book has been a work in progress ever since. Various phases of it have received many helpful comments and suggestions from Carolyn and her coeditor Bob Speiser. In addition, Susan Pirie has at least twice caused me to dismantle whole chapters and reassemble them in drastically improved form. In the end, it became clear that publication through conventional channels was no longer the appropriate format for achieving our original goal of swift accessibility, and so I opted for publishing it with X-libris instead. The change in format did not, however, change at all the fact that I am very grateful to all three of them. ix
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