Use of Abu'l-Wafa's problem to foster pedagogical knowledge of prospective mathematics teachers

• Main Author: Karmelita H. Pjanić (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: University of Belgrade, Teacher Education Faculty, 2020-03-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 10.5937/inovacije2001089P; 0352-2334; 2335-0806
• Keywords: abu'l-wafa's problem; mathematical and pedagogical content knowledge; prospective mathematics teachers; Education; L
• Source: Inovacije u Nastavi, Vol 33, Iss 1, Pp 89-96 (2020)

Solving Abu'l-Wafa's problem could be a powerful tool for building and fostering pedagogical content knowledge of prospective mathematics teachers. The goal of this case study is to examine if this episode in the history of mathematics would foster the subject content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of a group of prospective mathematics teachers. Abu'l-Wafa's problem was presented to five prospective mathematics teachers in the Mathematics Teaching Methodology Course. They had to find out at what point of learning geometry and how to engage pupils to solve this problem, taking into account the question of procedural and conceptual knowledge in mathematics as well as the important question of the role of proof and argumentation in mathematics classes. Our case study showed that an integration of the history of mathematics in education may be particularly relevant for supporting and improving the pedagogical content knowledge of prospective mathematics teachers.