Salvatore Enrico Paolo Indiogine Doctoral Candidate in Curriculum & Instruction Texas A&M University Curriculum vitae

Research Interests History of Mathematics Education I am interested in the history of mathematics education with an emphasis on textbooks. I am focused on the historical period that runs from the Antiquity to the 'Classical' period. Geographically I limit myself to the Ancient Near East, the Greek/Roman 'eukumene' and Europe. I would like to extend this area of research to the Arabic/Persian civilization of the Middle Ages and later. History of the Near East Anyone is aware of the turmoil in the Middle East. If we want to begin to understand the reasons for this situation we need to look back into the past. An event that happened in the Middle East 1,000 years ago is considered "recent" history. Furthermore the are many erroneous historical beliefs because of ideological interests. I like to look at the "facts" and go beyond the ideology. I am of the opinion that a rational, dispassionate approach will be helpful even though not sufficient for its remedy. Note that the term `middle east' is erroneous. The correct term should be `near east.' The middle east should correspond to the Indian subcontinent, and the `far east' corresponds to China, Japan and other countries of the area. Investing in the Stock Market Understanding how to invest in the stock market and especially how to protect oneself from prolonged downturn is more than a mere intellectual exercise. It is an almost indispensable survival skill. For the mathematically inclined the stock and stock option markets have a special significance.

Academic Papers and Presentations

All these papers and presentations were written using TeX. I placed the papers that I consider more significant on Google Knol. To upload these files I ran the program detex to convert the tex file to plain text. Then I used Emacs to add the appropriate HTML tags. Another path that I took for conversion was to run the tex file through latex2rtf to convert them to rtf. Before uploading these to Google Knol, I edited, updated, and corrected them. The other papers are pdf documents stored on this web server.

All papers, except one, were written using TeX and all presentations were prepared using the TeX package Beamer. All statistical analysis was performed using R.

Preliminary examination, Fall 2009, papers on

• my Research paradigm, a paper where I explain the components of my methods, methodology, epistemology, ontology, and axiology.


• State sponsorship of mathematics education


• Constructivism and the "Math Wars"


• Controversies on the standards of mathematics teaching


• the Assessment of mathematics curriculum materials


• "Knowledge package" of mathematics teachers.


• the "Didactic contract".


• Philosophy of education.


• History of education.

EDCI 689-604, Spring 2009, Knowledge and Research in Curriculum & Instruction

• an essay on three critical issues in mathematics education.


• a book review of L'enseignement des mathématiques.


• I am slowly translating the 1st chapter of this book from French to English. No English translation of this book exists.


• a review of two chapters of The Sage Handbook in Qualitative Research.

EDCI 644-602, Spring 2009, Curriculum Development

• an excursus on the teaching of the Theory of Evolution.


• a commentary on Curriculum development in the Postmodern Era by Patrick Slattery.

EDCI 689-613, Fall 2008, Curriculum Research in Mathematics

• A term paper where I analyze the illustrations of various versions of Book I of The Elements of Euclid.


• I used the TikZ graphic language to code the presentation of this paper. Unfortunately, Google Knol was not able to convert the pdf and preserve all the figures. Thus, the link is to the pdf on this web-server.
  
  

EHRD 651, Fall 2008, Models of Epistemology and Inquiry

• A term paper on paradigm analysis. The first part analyzes a research article on mathematics textbooks and the second part analyzes research article on the history of the Gospels.


• A discourse on paradigms, based on a reflexive paper.

EDCI 621, Spring 2008, Teaching and Learning Geometry

• a term paper on Intelligent Tutoring Systems


• and its computer presentation.

EDCI 689-700, Spring 2008, Professional Development for Science Teachers

• a term paper, a proposal for a professional development program.

EDCI 622, Fall 2007, Theory of Learning and Teaching Mathematics

• a term paper on the representation of operations with fractions were I presented and analyzed some research data. I used R for statistical analysis.


• I also prepared its presentation.

MATH 689, Summer 2007, Teaching Mathematics at College Level

• a term paper on the misconceptions about exponents.

EDCI 647, Summer 2007, Curriculum Theory

• a term paper on mathematics curriculum. I wrote the second section, "Why Teach Mathematics," of this group paper.

EDCI 685-602, Spring 2007, Directed Studies

• a term paper where I performed a statistical analysis of the effectiveness of a teacher mathematics module program. I used the Sweave package to integrate R with TeX.

EDCI 658, Spring 2007, History of Education

• a paper on the Israel Institute of Technology.

MATH 645, Fall 2006, Survey of Mathematical Problems, I

• a term paper on Newcomb's Paradox.

Papers of Personal Interest

• A personal interest paper on chapters 7 to 9 of the biblical Book of Daniel and how it relates to the Hellenistic Era of the Ancient Near East (ANE).


• A personal interest paper on the history of Jesus the Nazarene. Warning, this could be controversial since I do not follow the traditional view.


• Draft of an investment manual. Please be aware that (1) it is a work in progress, and (2) it requires some basic knowledge of the stock and stock option markets.

Research Sources The best starting point is one's library. In my case the Texas A&M Library. We should then access Google Scholar through that site instead of directly. That way we have access to more documents. Google Books. The Proquest dissertation database. Access this and other online database through your library. In my case the Texas A&M Library. The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive at the University of Saint Andrews in Scotland. Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana Nigel Guy Wilson (1992) From Byzantium to Italy: Greek Studies in the Italian Renaissance, John Hopkins University Press / Duckworth, London. ISBN 0715624180 Renaissance Quarterly Proceedings The Books of Venice, March 2007 at Venezia Paul F. Grendler (2004) The Universities of the Italian Renaissance, John Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801880556 Fabio Vendruscolo (1995) Lorenzo Loredan / Lauréntios Lauretanos "copista" e possessore di codici greci. Italia Medioevale e Umanistica, 38 pp. 337-363 (FI 100 P.268) Paul F. Grendler (1989) Schooling in renaissance Italy: Literacy and Learning, 1300-1600. John Hopkins University Press, ISBN 0801837251 Robert Black (2001) Humanism and Education in Medieval and Renaissance Italy: Tradition and Innovation in Latin Schools from the Twelth to the Fifteenth Century. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521401925 The Greek/English version of The Elements of Euclid The version of The Elements by Tartaglia.

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Research Tools

I use for my research and the creation of documents only Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). Thus I am not at the mercy of for-profit companies, closed and incompatible data formats, financial expenses, and licensing hassles. To make a long story short, I do not use any office suite.

Statistics and Data Analysis For all my statistics, plotting and data analysis (both numerical and text) I use R. Here is a good introductory web site, and here is a good introduction. Here is an example of R code that I have written for a statistical analysis. For data (text) analysis I have used RQDA, which is an extension to R. Of course, this is also an open source package.

Document Creation I use the TeX document preparation system to create all my documents, whether articles, presentations, or posters. Here is the TeX website. If I have to submit a document in a popular non-free format, I use a conversion utility (latex2rtf). TeX can also produce HTML code. Here is a template that I use to write APA documents. To create computer presentations I use the TeX package Beamer To create illustrations I use the TeX package TikZ. However, for plots the best tool is the above mentioned R. Here is a template that I use to create computer presentations. The template also has TikZ example code. TeX can embed R code inside your tex file. This tool is called Sweave, and is part of all R installations. Here is the Sweave manual and here is a Sweave file that I have written.

Bibliography To manage my bibliographic references I use BibTeX. This program seamlessly interfaces with TeX and Emacs (see below).

Emacs

I work with R, TeX and BibTeX through GNU Emacs. Emacs is a multi-platform, multi-functional highly customizable text editor. The package that interacts with R is ESS, Emacs Speaks Statistics. The one that interacts with TeX and BibTeX is AucTeX. I use Emacs also for HTML and PHP editing. In fact, this website was created using Emacs. Other wonderfully useful features of Emacs are its Planner/Organizer and Calculator/Spreadsheet. Furthermore, it is possible to run the open source Computer Algebra System Maxima and the high level numerical computation language Octave within Emacs. Do not worry, all these packages and features are already included in most Emacs distributions.

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Podcasting I participate in Apologia, a non confrontational podcast on science, philosophy, history, and religion.

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This Page was last modified on 2010-02-01