Malbatahanic ideas on Mathematics Education in Brazil and Colombia

• Autor(a) principal: Espinosa, Alfonso Jiménez
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Outros Autores: Lorenzato, Sergio
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de Educação Matemática (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://www.revistasbemsp.com.br/index.php/REMat-SP/article/view/187
• topic: Malba Tahan; Mathematics Didactics; Mathematics Education; Brazil; Colombia; Malba Tahan; Didáctica de la Matemática; Educación Matemática; Brasil; Colombia; Malba Tahan; Didática da Matemática; Educação Matemática; Brasil; Colômbia

In Brazil, May 6 is officially the National Day of Mathematics, in honor of Julio Cesar de Mello e Souza, also known by the pseudonym ‘Malba Tahan’. It is justified by this teacher’s valuable contribution to Mathematics Education – and not only in Brazil, as shown in this article which summarizes the life and works of an engineer who opted for teaching and literature. In 50 years he published about 120 books: for decades, his best-selling book in Brazil was “O Homem que Calculava” (The Man Who Counted), which is currently published in 17 countries. But it was with “Didática da Matemática” (Didactics of Mathematics) that Julio Cesar recorded in the history of Education the characteristics of Mathematics teaching at the time, highlighting the obsolete, the useless and the noxious to be eliminated. In addition, he suggested with clarity and competence how to make the teaching of important curricular contents – considered hard and demotivating – understandable and interesting. Malba Tahan’s ideas and suggestions did not reach Brazilian and Colombian classrooms at the time. In the following decades, however, they were incorporated in governmental directives of both countries, among others, and nowadays they are present in many schools and in didactic books, for example: games, puzzles, paradoxes, optical illusions, discovery, experimentation, problem formulation, the history of Mathematics, useful mathematics, the beauty of mathematics, just as Malba Tahan recommended. This article, therefore, shows why Julio Cesar de Mello e Souza was a precursor of Mathematics Education, and not only in Brazil. However, new challenges arise on Mathematics Education in the 21st century.