Thinking as Communicating: Human Development, the Growth of Discourses, and Mathematizing (Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives)

This book contributes to the current debate about how to think and talk about human thinking so as to resolve or bypass such time-honored quandaries as the controversy of nature vs. nurture, the body and mind problem, the question of learning transfer, and the conundrum of human consciousness. The author responds to the challenge by introducing her own “commognitive” conceptualization of human thinking. She argues for this special approach with the help of examples of mathematical thinking. Except for its contribution to theorizing on human development, the book is relevant to researchers looking for methodological innovations, and to mathematics educators seeking pedagogical insights and improvements.

Anna Sfard's research focuses on the development of mathematical discourses in individual lives and in the course of history. In a series of studies in Israel, Canada, and the United States, she has been investigating the development of mathematical thinking in both history and individual learning. Results of these studies, both theoretical and empirical, have been published in more than 100 articles and edited volumes, many of which have been widely cited. The recipient of the 2007 Freudhental Medal for research in mathematics education, she is a Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Haifa, the first holder of the Lappan-Phillips-Fitzgerald endowed chair in Michigan State University, and a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Education in London.