• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.73-92
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• 2004

The paper surveys various attempts to use the concept of 'fundamental ideas' -Bruner's concept- as a tool for organizing mathematics teaching and research in mathematics education. One of the characteristics of fundamental ideas in mathematics is their correspondence to the history of mathematics; therefore in forming out contents and methods in mathematics education, the history of mathematics may be serve as an interesting aspect. It is demonstrated by the example of mean values.