Thinking as communicating : human development, the growth of discourses, and mathematizing

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Title:

Author:

Sfard, Anna.

ISBN:

9780521867375

Personal Author:

Sfard, Anna.

Publication Information:

New York : Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Physical Description:

xxiii, 324 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

Series:

Learning in doing

MyiLibrary

Series Title:

Learning in doing

General Note:

Formerly CIP.

Contents:

Puzzling about (mathematical) thinking -- Objectification -- Commognition : thinking as communicating -- Thinking in language -- Mathematics as a form of communication -- Objects of mathematical discourse : what mathematizing is all about -- Routines : how we mathematize -- Explorations, deeds, and rituals : what we mathematize for -- Looking back and ahead : solving old quandaries and facing new ones.

Abstract:

"This book is an attempt to change our thinking about thinking. Anna Sfard undertakes this task convinced that many long-standing, seemingly irresolvable quandaries regarding human development originate in ambiguities of the existing discourses on thinking. Standing on the shoulders of Vygotsky and Wittgenstein, the author defines thinking as a form of communication. The disappearance of the time-honored thinking-communicating dichotomy is epitomized by Sfard's term, commognition, which combines communication with cognition. The commognitive tenet implies that verbal communication with its distinctive property of recursive self-reference may be the primary source of humans' unique ability to accumulate the complexity of their action from one generation to another."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject Term:

Mathematics -- Language.

Thought and thinking.

Electronic Access:

MyiLibrary
Table of contents only http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0717/2007018212.html
Contributor biographical information http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0729/2007018212-b.html
Publisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0729/2007018212-d.html

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Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168025401130	153 S522T 2008	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

This book is an attempt to change our thinking about thinking. Anna Sfard undertakes this task convinced that many long-standing, seemingly irresolvable quandaries regarding human development originate in ambiguities of the existing discourses on thinking. Standing on the shoulders of Vygotsky and Wittgenstein, the author defines thinking as a form of communication. The disappearance of the time-honoured thinking-communicating dichotomy is epitomised by Sfard's term, commognition, which combines communication with cognition. The commognitive tenet implies that verbal communication with its distinctive property of recursive self-reference may be the primary source of humans' unique ability to accumulate the complexity of their action from one generation to another. The explanatory power of the commognitive framework and the manner in which it contributes to our understanding of human development is illustrated through commognitive analysis of mathematical discourse accompanied by vignettes from mathematics classrooms.