MATHEMATICS EDUCATION AS A SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINE: A EPISTEMOLOGICAL APPROACH
Abstract
During the recent decades, mathematics education (ME) is developing itself as a discipline of the field of the humanities. In this study, attempting a holistic approach of ME, we investigate researchers' positions concerning epistemological questions that frame research such as: What is the nature of knowledge that we seek and can develop about the phenomena of learning and teaching mathematics? How valid knowledge is acquired? What rules and evaluation criteria of research are adopted by the scientific community? The epistemological suppositions that direct the answers to these questions are examined through three research paradigms that have been central in ME: positivistic, interpretative and critical.
In the current phase of growth of ME, the search of transcendental truths for the phenomena and the objective of detached objectivity in the research seem to be re jected. Interpretive approaches are adopted and the multiplicity of theories, some times incompatible, becomes acceptable. Rules and evaluation criteria are adopted that consider research as persuasive argumentation.
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Στουραΐτης (Kostas Stouraitis) Κ. (2018). MATHEMATICS EDUCATION AS A SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINE: A EPISTEMOLOGICAL APPROACH. Research in Mathematics Education, (4), 9–37. https://doi.org/10.12681/enedim.18821
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