著者
佐藤 英二
出版者
日本数学教育史学会
雑誌
数学教育史研究 (ISSN:13470221)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.11, pp.1-11, 2011 (Released:2022-03-10)
被引用文献数
1

Hiraku Tohyama (1909–1979) was a mathematician who developed two theories on arithmetic education. One is “suido-houshiki,” the systematic method of instruction for performing calculations on paper, and the other is “ryo-no-taikei,” the method of curriculum design wherein several types of quantities are arranged in the right order. This paper challenges the widespread understanding that Tohyama believed that arithmetic education should be provided in accordance with these theories. Around the 1950s, Tohyama clearly distinguished between mathematics and art on the ground that mathematics is logical and systematic. He intended to criticize those who advocate mathematics education that is suited to children’s everyday life . Tohyama developed the two abovementioned theories while editing arithmetic textbooks in the late 1950s. Because he believed that textbooks were indispensable to teachers, he wished to produce textbooks that were systematic. However , in 1963, he started to insist on the close relation between science and art and began to raise doubts about the effectiveness of lessons that were based on plans and textbooks. This radical shift in his educational thought occurred after he witnessed unexpected active participation by children in learning in the classroom. In conclusion, that teachers should use systematically organized textbooks was not a strong belief that Tohyama held throughout his life; rather, it was a temporary opinion. He finally concluded that instructional theories such as “suido-houshiki” and “ryo-no-taikei” were fallible.
著者
佐藤 英二
出版者
日本数学教育史学会
雑誌
数学教育史研究 (ISSN:13470221)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.22, pp.1-12, 2022 (Released:2023-11-13)

This study examined the validity of the criticism of unit studies of mathematics education circa 1950, entailing the analysis of Yoshinobu Wada's objection to Hiraku Toyama's opinion. The result reveals the following aspects. First, when compared to academic achievement surveys circa 1940, no structural decline in academic achievement was observed during the early postwar period. The decline in academic achievement demonstrated by Shunichi Kubo was a temporary phenomenon noted immediately after World War II. Second, unit studies were criticized on the grounds that they overlooked the systematic features of mathematics. However, Wada refuted this theory by highlighting the logic that develops in children as a system. The legitimacy of Wada's logic was rooted in the arithmetic education reform implemented before the war. Third, the premise of the theory’s acceptance, which states that unit studies overlooked systematic features and its inheritance to this day, was a misreading of Wada's discourse and the 1951 Course of Study. Fourth, in the 1958 revision of the Course of Study, the principle of curriculum organization shifted from experience- to discipline-oriented learning. This shift could be understood as a change that required teachers to become increasingly aware of clarifying goals and systematizing content and simultaneously maintain the traditional educational philosophy.
著者
佐藤 英二
出版者
日本数学教育史学会
雑誌
数学教育史研究 (ISSN:13470221)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.3, pp.1-12, 2003 (Released:2022-03-10)

‘Bun-ken’ contained six subjects on mathematics, that is, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, analytical geometry and calculus. Before 1920, all applicants took the tests of the first three subjects, and the rest were only for those who wanted special certificates. But after 1921, the Ministry of Education integrated the teaching certificates, and all applicants had to take the examinations of all subjects. This change of the system of teaching certifications corresponded to the transformation of problems of every subject in two respects. At first, before 1920 the number of the problems of arithmetic was approximately equal to those of algebra and geometry. But after 1921 it decreased rapidly. This means that almost all the problems of ‘Bun-ken’ lost social and natural scientific contexts, which used to be connected with arithmetic knowledge and skills in Japanese daily lives. Secondly, before 1920 all applicants for the certificate of calculus were obligated to pass the test of analytic geometry in advance. But after 1921 the relative importance of these two subjects was reversed. This change was a sign of the transformation of the mathematics curriculum. Because analytic geometry was an entry not only into calculus but into projective geometry, which had been an principal concept to integrate systematically the curriculum from secondary schools to universities.