ERIC Number: EJ748188
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006-Mar
Pages: 8
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0013-1954
EISSN: N/A
Convergence of Numerical Sequences--A Commentary on "The Vice: Some Historically Inspired and Proof Generated Steps to Limits of Sequences" by R. P. Burn
Berge, Analia
Educational Studies in Mathematics, v61 n3 p395-402 Mar 2006
Burn (2005) proposes a "genetic approach" to teaching limits of numerical sequences. The article includes an explanation of the Method of Exhaustion, a generalization of this method, and a description of how this method was used for obtaining areas and lengths in the seventeenth century. The author uses these historical and mathematical analyses as a basis for proposing an alternative definition of the limit of a sequence. The paper focuses on the fine mathematical and historical detail of the notion of limit. Reading it made me reflect on the explicitly or implicitly involved didactical aspects, which I would like to share with "Educational Studies in Mathematics" readers.
Descriptors: Criticism, Teaching Methods, Mathematics Education, Educational History, Mathematics, Sequential Approach, Reader Response, Intellectual History, Convergent Thinking
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A