Product reviews for The Philosophy Foundation: The Numberverse

This is indeed a very curious book! The author takes a rather unusual and unique approach to the teaching of mathematics. His philosophical approach of turning a normal lesson into more of an enquiry where the pupils are at the heart of the learning is more in tune with today's open-questioned curriculum. Now that may not suit everyone, but it's here and is just one other tool in a teacher's box.

The book is probably aimed for upper primary or lower secondary, but could easily be adapted for other groups. It discusses numbers everywhere, from historical events to mass media trying to give pupils an understanding of the universe today. There are 28 different topics such as Pythagoras, primes, decimal point, angles, golden ratio, fractions and so on. Puzzles and problems are presented in a way to engage pupils in a way that will not turn them off or, worse, make them hate mathematics. The book might fall short for some teachers looking for full lesson plans, but that would take away the spontaneity the author is seeking to develop in a class situation.

Each chapter is divided into three main sections -” a teacher introduction for interest, a things to do section with the main ideas to try and a things to say or key words section to generate the correct atmosphere in the class. Few teachers will follow this in order, but would be better to dip in and out of the book choosing topics that are of interest to them. Otherwise their enthusiasm will be lessened which will be picked up by the class. There should be enough topics that interest most teachers to have a go and no doubt they can be developed after teaching it a couple of times. Definitely worth trying in the class.