Teaching students to ‘think like a mathematician’ is a huge waste of effort.
[‘An introduction to mathematics’ archive.org/details/introd…]
‘Scientific thought’ here is a metaphor for scientific research , it is not meant to be the thinking of the individual scientist.
Whitehead, p. 11:
Again, ‘modern thought’ here is not the thinking of individual scientists; it is scientific method itself, a collective achievement.
Therefore: teach math, and math only.
Whitehead p. 61: It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy-books and by eminent people when they are 1/2
Just like driving one’s car. Amen.
(literature and annotations, partly in Dutch & English)
@SGStotsky
, thanks Sandra). I’ll repeat my answers here, in the main thread.
Ever since Dutch results on national (PPON) and international math tests (TIMSS, PISA) are in decline.
(building further on work by, a.o., Newell and Simon, Newell 1990).
Lawyers, chess masters, mathematicians: same psychology.
It is therefore important for professions to be strongly disciplined.