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The advent of fast and sophisticated computer graphics has brought dynamic and interactive images under the control of professional mathematicians and mathematics teachers. This volume in the NATO Special Programme on Advanced Educational Technology takes a comprehensive and critical look at how the computer can support the use of visual images in mathematical problem solving. The contributions are written by researchers and teachers from a variety of disciplines including computer science, mathematics, mathematics education, psychology, and design. Some focus on the use of external visual images and others on the development of individual mental imagery. The book is the first collected volume in a research area that is developing rapidly, and the authors pose some challenging new questions.
List of contents
1. Emphasizing the External.- Imagery for diagrams.- External representations in arithmetic problem solving.- Visualisation in mathematics and graphical mediators: an experience with 11-12 year old pupils.- Visual organisers for formal mathematics.- Mediating mathematical action.- Mathematical objects, representations, and imagery.- 2. Imagery in Support of Geometry.- Images and concepts in geometrical reasoning.- Between drawing and figure.- The functions of visualisation in learning geometry.- Geometrical pictures: kinds of representation and specific processings.- 3. Linking Screen and Mental Imagery.- Overcoming physicality and the external present: cybernetic manipulatives.- On visual and symbolic representations.- The dark side of the Moon.- Ruminations about dynamic imagery (and a strong plea for research).- On designing screen images to generate mental images.- Learning as embodied action.- 4. Employing Imagery.- The importance of mental perception when creating research pictures.- Random images on mental images.- Imagery as a tool to assist the teaching of algebra.- Mathematical screen metaphors.- Exploiting mental imaging: reflections of an artist on a mathematical excursion.
