The Changing Form of Numerical Reasoning Among the Oksapmin. Indigenous Mathematics Project. Working Paper 14 [microform] / Geoffrey B. Saxe
- Bib ID:
- 5425121
- Format:
- Book and Microform
- Author:
- Saxe, Geoffrey B
- Description:
-
- [Washington, D.C.] : Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse, 1981
- 12 p.
- Summary:
-
This brief report from the Indigenous Mathematics Project focuses on the way in which numerical reasoning is changing in the Oksapmin community of Papua New Guinea as a function of participation in new social institutions: economic exchange with currency and enrollment in school. Each of these new institutions means that arithmetic problems are framed in certain types of social interaction, in a culture which traditionally had no arithmetic problems. Their numeration system consists of enumerating 27 positions on the upper body with the 10 fingers, with some provision for counting further. How does one consider adding the nose to the shoulder? How they have adapted their indigenous system in order to communicate about currency is described in relation to problems at the tradestore. An examination revealed that adults with different levels of experience with a money economy solved problems in dramatically different ways. The school provides formal instruction on how to solve problems (in English). An arithmetic test showed that many children in grade 2 used the indigenous system, but only 10 percent used their bodies by grade 6. Interviews indicated the strategies they used. The report concludes that across both contexts the Oksapmin people are inventing new ways of using their traditional numeration system. (MNS)
- Notes:
-
- Sponsoring Agency: Papua New Guinea, Dept. of Education, Port Moresby.
- Sponsoring Agency: United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Paris (France).
- ERIC Note: For related documents, see SE 041 540-555.
- May also be available online. Address as at 14/8/18: https://eric.ed.gov/
- Reproduction:
- Microfiche. [Washington D.C.]: ERIC Clearinghouse microfiches : positive.
- Subject:
-
- Arithmetic
- Cognitive Development
- Cognitive Processes
- Cross Cultural Studies
- Cultural Differences
- Cultural Influences
- Educational Research
- Field Studies
- Language Role
- Mathematics Education
- Mathematics Instruction
- Number Concepts
- Number Systems
- Problem Solving
- Indigenous Mathematics Project Papua New Guinea
- Mathematics Education Research
- Other authors/contributors:
- Indigenous Mathematics Project, Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea)
- Available From:
- ERIC
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
You may copy under some circumstances, for example you may copy a portion for research or study. Order a copy through Copies Direct to the extent allowed under fair dealing. Contact us for further information about copying.
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary Dramatic Musical
- Published status:
- Published
- Publication date:
- 1981
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.
Request this item
Request this item to view in the Library’s reading room.
Feedback
Similar items
- Spiral self-avoiding walks on the triangular lattice / by G. Szekeres and A.J. Guttman
- The theory of partitions / George E. Andrews
- Polynomial identities of the Roger-Ramanujan type / Yas-Hiro Quana
- A Portrait of 2. A Brief Survey of the Elementary Number Systems [microform] / Lawrence A. Ringenberg
- History of the theory of numbers ... ... / by Leonard Eugene Dickson