Images and Belief Research Papers
Please click on the links below to read the abstracts of the papers, alternatively you may wish to scroll through them.
- The human face of mathematics: challenging misconceptions
- Your students’ images of mathematicians and mathematics
- Investigating pupils’ images of mathematicians
Picker, S. H. & Berry, J. S. (2002). The human face of mathematics: challenging misconceptions. In D. Worsely, (Ed.), Teaching for depth: where math meets the humanities (pp. 50-60). New York: Heinemann.
A report of an intervention in to see if a group of students (n = 176) meeting with a diverse panel of mathematicians could change the invisibility of mathematicians for students and change negative images of mathematics and mathematicians.
Picker, S. H. & Berry, J. S. (2001). Your students’ images of mathematicians and mathematics. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School,7(4), 202-208 (NCTM).
This article discusses a research study in which middle school students, in a variation of Margaret Meade’s "Draw a Scientist Test" were asked to "draw a mathematician at work". The images indicate that for these children, mathematicians and the work they do are invisible and media images have filled the void.
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Picker, S.H. & Berry, J. S. (2001). Investigating pupils’ images of mathematicians. In M. van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, (Ed.), Proceedings of the 25th conference of the international group for the psychology of mathematics education (PME), vol. 4 (pp. 49-56). Utrecht, Netherlands: Freudenthal Institute, Utrecht University.