AA 2011 Volume 43 Issue 4

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http://hdl.handle.net/11660/2482

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Browsing AA 2011 Volume 43 Issue 4 by Subject "Mathematics"

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    Defining mathematics
    (University of the Free State, 2011) Strauss, Danie
    English: Any definition of mathematics falls outside its field of investigation. When mathematics is set theory, the history of mathematics prior to the investing of set theory is eliminated. Arguing that the aspects of number and space delimit mathematics makes it possible to avoid both Platonism and constructivism in mathematics. Every philosophy of mathematics should be able to account for the nature and status of the infinite. That set theory is a spatially deepened theory of numbers cannot be accounted for by what Lakoff and Núñez call the Basic Metaphor of Infinity. Gödel’s 1931 results point to an immediate, evident, intuitive insight.
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    Meeting the social and emotional needs of first-year mathematics students through peer-tutoring
    (University of the Free State, 2011) Maitland, Irene; Lemmer, Eleanor
    English: Academic under-performance among first-year university students calls for effective support systems. In this regard, a peer tutor-mentor programme was introduced at a private university in South Africa to improve the academic outcomes of vulnerable first-year mathematics students enrolled in an academic development programme. This article examines the influence of peer tutor-mentoring through a qualitative inquiry framed by a bricolage of learning theories. Data gathered from a comprehensive sample of students, tutor-mentors and lecturers indicate that the programme assists students’ social adjustment in a multicultural setting; that cultural diversity among tutor-mentors is both a barrier and a resource, and that positive campus perceptions of the programme are essential to its continuation, thus forging a new community of mathematics practitioners.