• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.557-575
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• 2011

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the way of teaching and learning logarithm in high school mathematics and provide practical suggestions for teaching logarithms. For such purpose, it reviewed John Napier's life and his ideas, the effect of logarithms on seventeenth century science, and a logarithmic scale and its methods of calculation. With this reviews, introduction of logarithms with function concept, logarithmic calculation with common logarithms, and the formula of converting to other logarithmic bases were reviewed for finding a new perspective of teaching and learning logarithms in high school mathematics. Through such historical and pedagogical reviews, this paper presented practical suggestions and comments about the way of teaching and learning logarithms in high school mathematics.