Integration of the History of Mathematics in Mathematics Education: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

The history of mathematics (HoM) is important for mathematics to be enriched, in the evaluation of the development of the mathematics based on scholars and subjects. However, many students often have a bad impression of Mathematics. Therefore, a lot of alternatives have been used by Mathematics educators to change this sceptical view of Mathematics. One of the methods is by using the history in Mathematics in the teaching and learning process. Therefore, this study aims to identify Mathematics teachers' views towards the integration of the HoM and the implementation of HoM in teaching and learning in a systematic literature review context. Using the guidelines by Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyzes (PRISMA) and the combination of keywords such as "integration of History of Mathematics", "using History of Mathematics", "implementing History of Mathematics" and "integrating History of Mathematics". 30 out of 1412 articles used in this study were chosen from two electronic databases which are ERIC, and Google Scholar without restricting the year of publication. The article selection was done based on a few criteria such that the variables in previous research were focused on the views and opinions of teachers about the usage of HoM and the usage of HoM in Mathematics education. Extraction of data was based on the name of the researcher, year, country, title, sample size, instrument used, field of study, methodology and analysis and findings. The findings reveal that Mathematics' teachers have positive views about the integration of HoM in teaching and learning. Teachers did not use HoM in class due to problems such as lack of knowledge and skill to integrate HoM, insufficient materials, resources and time and exclusion of HoM in the Mathematics syllabus and examination. To conclude, Mathematics teachers should consider integrating HoM in their teaching and choosing history as an alternative way to teach Mathematics. As for future works, Mendeley, Scopus and Web of Science are highly recommended to be databases of the study using should extensive related keywords.

History of mathematical concepts and students’ cognitive understanding of mathematics: Effect of pedagogical content knowledge

“…The results of the findings showed that even though the majority of the teachers, just as teachers in the study of Butuner (2018b), did not have much knowledge in HoM concepts but had a substantially strong relation of their PCK (PCK) with the student's cognitive understanding for HoM concepts. Because they showed their enthusiasm of readiness (Azman & Maat, 2021) to use HoM concepts in teaching the concepts. This could be the reason for the strong relationship between the teachers' PCK and its influence on SCU of it.…”

“…Against all this backdrop of teachers' lack of instructional methodology in using HoM, students almost always express their satisfaction and likeness of having experienced HoM in their class (Doz, 2021;Panasuk & Horton, 2013). In the same manner, some teachers are very enthusiastic about it and its use in the classroom (Azman & Maat, 2021). If teachers know how to integrate HoM in the teaching of mathematics, it will be beneficial to them and their students, even though some teachers' self-efficacy belief is low towards the use of HoM (Kusumawati & Fachrudin, 2019).…”

“…Doz (2021), therefore concluded that serious consideration should be given to incorporating HoM concepts in the mathematics curriculum, and teachers integrating the same in their teaching of mathematics. This is important because most mathematics teachers have positive attitudes and beliefs toward the use of HoM concepts as their students showed much interest and motivation leading to an understanding of the concepts (Azman & Maat, 2021).…”