The name of Zoltan P. Dienes (1916-) stands with those of Jean Piaget and Jerome Bruner as a legendary figure whose theories of learning have left a lasting impression on the field of mathematics education. Dienes' name is synonymous with the Multi-base blocks (also known as Dienes blocks) which he invented for the teaching of place value. He also is the inventor of Algebraic materials and logic blocks, which sowed the seeds of contemporary uses of manipulative materials in mathematics instruction. Dienes' place is unique in the field of mathematics education because of his theories on how mathematical structures can be taught from the early grades onwards using multiple embodiments through manipulatives, games, stories and dance. Dienes' notion of embodied knowledge presaged other cognitive scientists who eventually came to recognize the importance of embodied knowledge and situated cognition - where knowledge and abilities are organized around experience as much as they are organized around abstractions. Dienes was an early pioneer in what was later to be called sociocultural perspectives and democratization of learning. This monograph compiled and edited by Bharath Sriraman honors the seminal contributions of Dienes to mathematics education and includes several recent unpublished articles written by Dienes himself. These articles exemplify his principles of guided discovery learning and reveal the non-trivial mathematical structures that can be made accessible to any student. The monograph also includes a rare interview with Dienes in which he reflects on his life, his work, the role of context, language and technology in mathematics teaching and learning today. The book finds an important place in any mathematics education library and is vital reading for mathematics education researchers, cognitive scientists, prospective teachers, graduate students and teachers of mathematics.
Zoltan Dienes (born 1916) is a Hungarian mathematician whose ideas on the education (especially of small children) have been popular in some countries. He is a world-famous theorist and tireless practitioner of the "new mathematics" - an approach to mathematics learning that uses games, songs and dance to make it more appealing to children. One of the best known examples of the application of these principles is Dienes' multibase blocks, which have been used in learning by many around the world to embody the concepts of place values. Mike Thomas is an Associate Professor at the Mathematics Education Unit in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Auckland, and has been in regular contact over the last ten years with Zoltan Dienes whose manuscripts have appeared regularly in the New Zealand Mathematics Magazine. Mike is confident that all mathematic educators will find something valuable in this publication as will their students.
In this work Zoltan Paul Dienes enlivens the world of algebra and examines some of the mysteries of mathematical constructions in a new and exciting fashion. Step by step, equation by equation, diagram by diagram, he strips away all the unintelligible jar
Dr Zoltan Dienes is a world-famous theorist and tireless practitioner of the 'new mathematics' - an approach to mathematics learning which uses games, songs and dance to make it more appealing to children. Holder of numerous honorary degrees, Dr Dienes has had a long and fruitful career, breaking new ground and gaining many followers with his revolutionary ideas of learning often complex mathematical concepts in such fun ways that children are often unaware that they are learning anything.This is an honest account of an academic radical, covering his sometimes unconventional childhood in Hungary, France, Germany and Britain, his peripatetic academic career, his successes and failures and his personal affairs. Occasionally sad or moving, frequently amusing and always fascinating, this autobiography shares some of the intelligence, spirit and humanity that have made Dr Dienes such a landmark figure in mathematics education. A 'must-read' for anyone with a professional interest in the field, this is also an absorbing and frank book for anyone interested in the life of a man of ideas who was not afraid to take on the might of the traditionalist educational establishment.
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