Notas biográficas

Marc Moyon is a French historian of medieval mathematics at the University of Limoges in France, where he leads the Higher National Institute of Teaching and Education. In 2011, he received the Prize for Young Historians awarded by the International Academy of the History of Science. His research focuses above all on Arabic–Latin mathematical translations. He also works on history of mathematics education (elementary mathematics in France, in the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century). For several years, Marc Moyon has been conducting research, within the French network of IREMs, on mathematics education, and in particular on the implementation of a historical perspective in the training of mathematics teachers and in the teaching of mathematics. In 2019, he received, with D. Tournès, the Académie des Sciences book prize for science education for the book "Passerelles: enseigner les mathématiques par leur histoire au cycle 3".

Talk title: "History of mathematics ‘in potentiality’ versus history of mathematics ‘in actuality’: an analysis of French textbooks to implement history of maths in classroom"

Abstract
Many international studies focus empirically on integrating the history of mathematics in mathematics education. Defended for decades within the IREM (research institute for maths education), the history of mathematics is now officially introduced in the French curriculum. Nevertheless, is it sufficient for teachers to change their habits by implementing the history of mathematics in their practices? To answer this question, I present the survey with secondary school mathematics teachers (pupils from 10- to 18 years old) about the introduction of the history of mathematics in their classes. This survey allows the comparison of teachers’ desires (‘history of mathematics in potentiality’) and realities in classrooms (‘history of mathematics in actuality’). Then I focus on French mathematics textbooks (for pupils from 15- to 18 years old) in order to question their effectiveness as tools for the introduction of a historical perspective. I will describe also one historical/mathematical task available in these textbooks focusing on their reference to Fibonacci. Finally, I present a proposal to implement the history of mathematics in mathematics education starting from the textbooks, aiming to help mathematics teachers to redesign the tasks of their textbooks so as to be more relevant.