TEACHING AND LEARNING MATHEMATICS HUMANISTICALLY

Abstract

Usually, a professor of mathematics shows a few examples, and assigns students some similar exercises for a drill. As a result, many students come to a view that mathematics is useless in real life, boring, and incomprehensible. Teaching mathematics humanistically demands creativity of both the professor and a student. This theme emphasizes the meaning of emotional climate for learning mathematics. There are lots of promising ideas: historical background showing mathematics as a human discipline, interesting problems and open-ended questions, supreme beauty in mathematics, working in groups and teaching by projects, using of a computer algebra systems, mathematics application in business, economics, art, and architecture. Which way should we go?