From practical geometry to the laboratory method: the search for an alternative to Euclid in the history of teaching geometry

2016/02/29 by Marta Menghini, Menghini, Marta
Arts and Humanities · Mathematics · Social Sciences · #Historical Studies in Science #History and Theory of Mathematics #Mathematics Education and Teaching Techniques #math.HO

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1603.08417

Abstract

This paper wants to show how practical geometry, created to give a concrete help to people involved in trade, in land-surveying and even in astronomy, underwent a transformation that underlined its didactical value and turned it first into a way of teaching via problem solving and then into an experimental-intuitive teaching that could be an alternative to the deductive-rational teaching of geometry. This evolution will be highlighted using textbooks that proposed alternative presentations of geometry.

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