You are on page 1of 1

Thinking Mathematically: 5 Ideas of Mathematics

IDEA

ROLE
The mind must compose units,
which are countable objects, and
Composition
the conception of units must be
flexible.
The act of forming smaller pieces from The mind must be able to
units is referred to decomposition.
decompose units into smaller
Decomposition
pieces.

Relationships

DEFINITION
The act of composing units is referred to
as composition.

An ability to see relationships as


something tangible, in spite of their
abstract nature i.e. the concept of
relationships between numbers and a set
of numbers; between shapes and parts of
shapes.

The concept of letting something


tangible or written stands for an abstract
idea; we use the term represent when we
are letting something tangible stand for
Representation
an abstract idea.

Concept

A real-world, practical context from


which mathematical abstractions can be
derived.

IMPORTANCE
Counting and a system to
represent numbers.
Importance of this idea
Used as a basis for analysis

The mind must perceive of


relationships between units and/or
partitions of units as entities that
can be studied, described, and
manipulated.

The study of ratio, proportion,


percent, scale, measurement,
statistics, probability,, functions,
geometry, and among various
ways a concept can be
represented.

The mind must conceive of ways to


represent abstractions with some
form of symbols that can be
manipulated and upon which
operations can be carried out in
proxy.

Many of the ideas of mathematics


are very complex, and the
representation of those ideas in
symbolic form gives us an
abbreviation and a shorthand
method of dealing with those
complex ideas.

In order for mathematics to be


meaningful, it helps to have a
context in which the mathematical
ideas reside.

Importance of this idea


Real-world applications for
mathematics provide the
necessary context.

You might also like