Performing math : a history of communication and anxiety in the American mathematics classroom / Andrew Fiss.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fiss, Andrew, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mathematics--Study and teaching (Higher)--United States--History--19th century.

Mathematics.

Communication in mathematics--United States--History--19th century.

Communication in mathematics.

Math anxiety--United States--History--19th century.

Math anxiety.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (224 p.) : 6 b-w images

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, [2021]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Performing Math tells the history of expectations for math communication—and the conversations about math hatred and math anxiety that occurred in response. Focusing on nineteenth-century American colleges, this book analyzes foundational tools and techniques of math communication: the textbooks that supported reading aloud, the burnings that mimicked pedagogical speech, the blackboards that accompanied oral presentations, the plays that proclaimed performers’ identities as math students, and the written tests that redefined “student performance.” Math communication and math anxiety went hand in hand as new rules for oral communication at the blackboard inspired student revolt and as frameworks for testing student performance inspired performance anxiety. With unusual primary sources from over a dozen educational archives, Performing Math argues for a new, performance-oriented history of American math education, one that can explain contemporary math attitudes and provide a way forward to reframing the problem of math anxiety.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Introduction

1 How Math Communication Has Started with Reading Aloud

2 How Math Communication Has Been Practiced in Prohibited Ways

3 How Math Anxiety Has Developed from Classroom Tech

4 How Math Communication Has Been Theatrical

5 How Math Anxiety Became about Written Testing

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781978820241

1-9788-2021-6

OCLC:

1198714108