Thinking as Communicating

Human Development, the Growth of Discourses, and Mathematizing
Erscheinungsjahr 2010
ISBN: 978-0-521-86737-5
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 360 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 722 g

Reihe: Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives

This book attempts to change thinking about thinking, convinced that many long-standing, seemingly irresolvable quandaries about human development originate in ambiguities of the existing discourses on thinking. Standing on the shoulders of Vygotsky and Wittgenstein, the author defines thinking as an individualized form of interpersonal communication. The disappearance of the time-honored thinking-communicating dichotomy is epitomized by Sfard's term, commognition, which combines communication with cognition. The commognitive tenet implies that verbal communication with its distinctive property of recursive self-reference may be the primary source of humans' unique ability to accumulate the complexity of their action from one generation to another. The explanatory power of commognitive framework and the manner in which it contributes to our understanding of human development is illustrated through commognitive analysis of mathematical discourse accompanied by vignettes from mathematics classrooms.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Sfard, Anna

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Wissenschaften: Theorie, Epistemologie, Methodik
• Mathematik | Informatik Mathematik Mathematik Allgemein Philosophie der Mathematik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Wissenschaftstheorie, Wissenschaftsphilosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Allgemeine Psychologie Kognitionspsychologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Philosophie der Mathematik, Philosophie der Physik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction; Part I. Discourse on Thinking: 1. Puzzling about mathematical thinking; 2. Objectification; 3. Commognition: thinking as communicating; 4. Thinking in language; Part II. Mathematics as Discourse: 5. Mathematics as a form of communication; 6. Objects of mathematical discourse: what mathematizing is all about; 7. Routines: how we mathematize; 8. Explorations, deeds, and rituals: what we mathematize for; 9. Looking back and ahead: solving old quandaries and facing new ones.

Über Autor(innen)

Sfard, Anna
Anna Sfard is based at the University of Haifa in Israel and holds a joint appointment as Lappan-Phillips-Fitzgerald Professor of Mathematics Education at Michigan State University and as Professor of Mathematics at the University of London, UK. With a formal background in mathematics and physics, and with a life-long interest in history, philosophy, and language, Anna Sfard has been involved in research on learning for more than 25 years. In a series of studies in Israel, Canada, and the U.S. she has been investigating the development of mathematical thinking both in history and in individual learning. Results of these studies, both theoretical and empirical, have been published in more than 100 articles that have been widely cited. She has co-edited a number of books and special issues and has been on editorial boards of several professional journals. For many years, she served as an editor of the Israeli Journal for Mathematics Teachers. Anna Sfard has been a visiting scholar at Warwick University, Purdue University, and Vanderbilt University while also serving on many international professional committees.