Article: Is maths magic?

Article from: Mathematics Teaching
Article date:
July 1, 2008
Author:
Askew, Mike CopyrightCopyright The Association of Teachers of Mathematics Jul 2008. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)

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It was an honour to be invited to give the afterdinner talk at this year's joint conference. But how to write up what was mainly a performance of magic? Writing about conjuring is a bit like ventriloquism on the radio: it loses something in translation. But here's a few loosely-connected thoughts.

For those of you who don't know me, I work in primary mathematics education and, in my spare time, enjoy close-up magic. For me, these are two distinct aspects of my life, not least because they involve different relationships widi the 'authence'. In my work as a maths educator, I want to be as transparent as possible. I want the people I am working with to know exactly what is going on and I try ...