{"title":"《十八手高》:从数学角度解读《动物庄园》","authors":"Liveness Mwale, W. Mwakapenda","doi":"10.4102/PYTHAGORAS.V39I1.403","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"These excerpts from Animal Farm are examples of the many instances in which mathematical ideas, especially those connected to number, are used in the book. The author used his ‘common’ knowledge of mathematics and his familiar language to present the story of Animal Farm using mathematical ideas explicitly or implicitly. It is possible that the author’s intentions were not to present mathematics or mathematical ideas, but because some storylines needed the use of mathematical language, he could not do so without using mathematics. This article emerges from a study that assessed learners’ abilities to interpret what they read and in particular, to ‘see’ mathematical aspects in the book Animal Farm. The study sought to find out learners’ abilities to read mathematically since mathematics is a specialised language that requires a specialised domain of practice. Animal Farm was one of the English Home Language literature books for high school learners in Grades 10–12 in South Africa in the 2015 academic year. According to the Department of Basic Education (2014), other novels for English Home Language were The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald, 2008) and Pride and Prejudice (Austen, 2008). Learners were presented with excerpts from Animal Farm such as the ones quoted above. They were required to identify the mathematics part of the excerpts and to interpret what the excerpts meant. In the first excerpt, the mathematics part is ‘eighteen hands high’. According to conversion rates one adult hand is approximately 0.1016 m long. Therefore, Boxer’s height in metres was approximately 1.83 m. It was important for learners to understand this mathematical aspect in order to make sense of the extract. Without this understanding, the statement: ‘eighteen hands high’, does not make sense as one reads it in the printed media. Understanding what one is reading and how one needs to read is a critical skill required in relation to learning and achievement in education generally and mathematics education specifically.","PeriodicalId":43521,"journal":{"name":"Pythagoras","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2018-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.4102/PYTHAGORAS.V39I1.403","citationCount":"1","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"‘Eighteen hands high’: A narrative reading of Animal Farm from a mathematical perspective\",\"authors\":\"Liveness Mwale, W. Mwakapenda\",\"doi\":\"10.4102/PYTHAGORAS.V39I1.403\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"These excerpts from Animal Farm are examples of the many instances in which mathematical ideas, especially those connected to number, are used in the book. The author used his ‘common’ knowledge of mathematics and his familiar language to present the story of Animal Farm using mathematical ideas explicitly or implicitly. It is possible that the author’s intentions were not to present mathematics or mathematical ideas, but because some storylines needed the use of mathematical language, he could not do so without using mathematics. This article emerges from a study that assessed learners’ abilities to interpret what they read and in particular, to ‘see’ mathematical aspects in the book Animal Farm. The study sought to find out learners’ abilities to read mathematically since mathematics is a specialised language that requires a specialised domain of practice. Animal Farm was one of the English Home Language literature books for high school learners in Grades 10–12 in South Africa in the 2015 academic year. According to the Department of Basic Education (2014), other novels for English Home Language were The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald, 2008) and Pride and Prejudice (Austen, 2008). Learners were presented with excerpts from Animal Farm such as the ones quoted above. They were required to identify the mathematics part of the excerpts and to interpret what the excerpts meant. In the first excerpt, the mathematics part is ‘eighteen hands high’. According to conversion rates one adult hand is approximately 0.1016 m long. Therefore, Boxer’s height in metres was approximately 1.83 m. It was important for learners to understand this mathematical aspect in order to make sense of the extract. Without this understanding, the statement: ‘eighteen hands high’, does not make sense as one reads it in the printed media. Understanding what one is reading and how one needs to read is a critical skill required in relation to learning and achievement in education generally and mathematics education specifically.\",\"PeriodicalId\":43521,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Pythagoras\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.3000,\"publicationDate\":\"2018-11-15\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.4102/PYTHAGORAS.V39I1.403\",\"citationCount\":\"1\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Pythagoras\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.4102/PYTHAGORAS.V39I1.403\",\"RegionNum\":0,\"RegionCategory\":null,\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q4\",\"JCRName\":\"EDUCATION, SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Pythagoras","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.4102/PYTHAGORAS.V39I1.403","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"EDUCATION, SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES","Score":null,"Total":0}
‘Eighteen hands high’: A narrative reading of Animal Farm from a mathematical perspective
These excerpts from Animal Farm are examples of the many instances in which mathematical ideas, especially those connected to number, are used in the book. The author used his ‘common’ knowledge of mathematics and his familiar language to present the story of Animal Farm using mathematical ideas explicitly or implicitly. It is possible that the author’s intentions were not to present mathematics or mathematical ideas, but because some storylines needed the use of mathematical language, he could not do so without using mathematics. This article emerges from a study that assessed learners’ abilities to interpret what they read and in particular, to ‘see’ mathematical aspects in the book Animal Farm. The study sought to find out learners’ abilities to read mathematically since mathematics is a specialised language that requires a specialised domain of practice. Animal Farm was one of the English Home Language literature books for high school learners in Grades 10–12 in South Africa in the 2015 academic year. According to the Department of Basic Education (2014), other novels for English Home Language were The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald, 2008) and Pride and Prejudice (Austen, 2008). Learners were presented with excerpts from Animal Farm such as the ones quoted above. They were required to identify the mathematics part of the excerpts and to interpret what the excerpts meant. In the first excerpt, the mathematics part is ‘eighteen hands high’. According to conversion rates one adult hand is approximately 0.1016 m long. Therefore, Boxer’s height in metres was approximately 1.83 m. It was important for learners to understand this mathematical aspect in order to make sense of the extract. Without this understanding, the statement: ‘eighteen hands high’, does not make sense as one reads it in the printed media. Understanding what one is reading and how one needs to read is a critical skill required in relation to learning and achievement in education generally and mathematics education specifically.
期刊介绍:
Pythagoras is a scholarly research journal that provides a forum for the presentation and critical discussion of current research and developments in mathematics education at both national and international level. Pythagoras publishes articles that significantly contribute to our understanding of mathematics teaching, learning and curriculum studies, including reports of research (experiments, case studies, surveys, philosophical and historical studies, etc.), critical analyses of school mathematics curricular and teacher development initiatives, literature reviews, theoretical analyses, exposition of mathematical thinking (mathematical practices) and commentaries on issues relating to the teaching and learning of mathematics at all levels of education.