THREEWAYSTOTHINKABOUTALGEBRA-MSRI.pptVIP

THE TRANSITION FROM ARITHMETIC TO ALGEBRA: WHAT WE KNOW AND WHAT WE DO NOT KNOW(Some ways of asking questions about this transition)? This talk will be short on Time Concrete Classroom Examples This talk addresses ‘algebra’ as a mathematical discipline, and its relation to the course(s) in high school labeled ‘algebra’. BUT WHAT IS ALGEBRA? I will not give a satisfying answer to this question. I will give constraints, valid for this talk only, on what I’m referring to by the term ‘algebra’. Only a fool will answer a question easily that 1000 wise people have asked. So I’m leaving out, here and now, the following very important topics (among others): Graphing equations and inequalities Translating words to symbols Computations with complex numbers Computations with radicals Applications Motivations Etc., etc. What Algebra is NOT: Part I A: Algebra is not the study of letters used in place of numbers 5 + what? = 12 “My rule is take a number and add 7” “My rule is [ ] ----- [ ]+7” “My rule is x ------ x+7” What algebra is NOT: Part II B. Algebra is NOT characterized by the study of functions Graphing functions leads to analysis, not algebra There are many ways to represent functions… …some of these representations are algebraic, BUT there is more to for algebra than just the representation of functions What about the ‘functions approach’ to algebra? Assertion I: The heart of algebra is NOT an understanding of the function concept. (Algebra deals with the study of binary operations.)? BUT: In looking at functions, and the role of algebraic variables in representing functions, students can come to understand something about binary operations. This is not unusual: Geometry is NOT characterized by the use of an axiomatic system. BUT: In studying geometry, students can come to understand something about the use of an axiomatic system. Fractions are NOT characterized by the expression of the probability of an event. BUT: In computing probabilities, studen