The Use of the History of Mathematics in the Teaching Pre-service Mathematics Teachers

Many scholars have written about using the history of mathematics in the teaching of pre-service mathematics teachers. For this study, pre-service mathematics teachers developed an electronic journal of reflections based on presentations in the history of mathematics in a secondary mathematics education course. The main purpose of the Mathematics History Journal was to help measure the mathematics content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of the pre-service mathematics teachers for accreditation purposes. Results of the study indicated that by allowing pre-service teachers to investigate and present topics in the history of mathematics, pre-service teachers believed they strengthened their mathematics content knowledge and were introduced to a new avenue for teaching secondary students about mathematics.