A Study on the Meaning of 'Social Construction' in Mathematics Education

사회적 구성'의 수학교육적 의미에 관한 고찰

This study analyzes the epistemological meaning of‘social construction’in mathematical instruction. The perspective that consider the cognition of mathematical concept as a social construction is explained by a cyclic scheme of an academic context and a school context. Both of the contexts require a public procedure, social conversation. However, there is a considerable difference that in the academic context it is Lakatos' ‘logic of mathematical discovery’In the school context, it is Vygotsky's‘instructional and learning interaction’. In the situation of mathematics education, the‘society’which has an influence on learner's cognition does not only mean‘collective members’, but‘form of life’which is constituted by the activity with purposes, language, discourse, etc. Teachers have to play a central role that guide and coordinate the educational process involving interactions with learners in this context. We can get useful suggestions to mathematics education through this consideration of the social contexts and levels to form didactical situations of mathematics.