Source: Mathematical Culture Paper | 2012-1-2009:19

Author: Luo Chengguang Liu Aichao Unit: Huanghuai College

With the development of the times and the progress of society, it has become inevitable for college students to have higher mathematical literacy, and the improvement of mathematical literacy requires us to carry out appropriate mathematical culture education from many aspects such as mathematical concepts, knowledge, skills, abilities, thinking, methods, attitudes, spirits and values. Therefore, the author thinks it is very necessary to set up elective courses of mathematics and culture in colleges and universities (hereinafter referred to as "public elective courses") to improve young students' mathematical literacy and even cultural literacy.

1 Understanding of Mathematical Culture

As a cultural phenomenon, mathematics has always been valued by people, but as a special cultural form, it was not until the second half of the 20th century that M Klein, a famous American historian of mathematics, made a systematic and profound exposition in his works. After that, people have a variety of views on the understanding of mathematical culture. After combing, I think their understanding of mathematical culture, although different, emphasizes the following aspects: ① Mathematical culture is a high generalization of mathematical knowledge, skills, concepts and values. ② Mathematical culture has a profound influence on people's behavior, concept, attitude and spirit, but this influence is subtle. ③ Mathematical culture embodies more humanistic spirit and plays an important role in improving people's cultural literacy and personality quality. Therefore, the author believes that mathematical culture refers to the whole integrated by mathematical knowledge system and mathematical concept system, which focuses on the long-term and profound influence on people's behavior, concepts, attitudes and spirit.

2 the value of mathematical culture

2. 1 Understanding Value Mathematics is not the direct study of objective things or phenomena, but the product of abstract thinking of "quantitative model" as the direct research object, so the laws of mathematics reflect not only the characteristics of individual things or phenomena, but the * * * same characteristics of a class of things or phenomena, which makes mathematics a powerful tool for human beings to understand the world. In terms of language, mathematics has a special symbolic language, which enables mathematical language to accurately and concisely describe scientific phenomena and laws; In terms of thinking, "mathematics is the gymnastics of thinking", and mathematical thinking is mainly reflected in logical thinking, in addition to image thinking and intuitive thinking; In addition, in terms of thinking method, mathematical thinking method is people's essential understanding of the content of mathematical knowledge and rational understanding of the methods and laws used. Once it is formed, it can be applied to all appropriate occasions and become an important guiding ideology for learning mathematical theory and using mathematical knowledge to solve practical problems.

2.2 Intelligence Value Mathematics is the creation of human intelligence, so learning mathematics has become the most effective way to train people's intelligence and improve their intelligence level. Practically speaking, as far as the efficacy of cultivating people's intelligence is concerned, as far as the depth, breadth and systematicness of cultivating people's thinking are concerned, no subject can compare with mathematics. What can make a person's intelligence develop and have such literacy? Lunqin, a physicist who is famous for discovering X-rays, thinks: "The first is mathematics, the second is mathematics, and the third is mathematics." It shows that mathematics is of great significance to developing human intelligence.

2.3 Spiritual value mathematics not only has a rich theoretical knowledge system, but also can continuously improve the spiritual realm of human beings and promote the progress of social civilization. The famous mathematician halmos said: "Mathematics is one of the most exquisite flowers in the human spirit." The spiritual value of mathematics is embodied in rational spirit, realistic spirit and innovative spirit, which are of great significance to the improvement of people's comprehensive quality.

2.4 Aesthetic Value In the eyes of ordinary people, mathematics often gives people the feeling that it is a boring "intellectual game". In fact, mathematics is not only an "intellectual game", but also one of the four central constructions of aesthetics (epic, music, modeling and mathematics), which has unique aesthetic value and significance. However, due to the extreme abstraction of mathematics, it also determines that mathematical beauty is an internal, profound and rational beauty, and "the visibility of beauty" is difficult to show. It is not as direct, revealing and distinct as artistic beauty.

3 the necessity of offering public elective courses in mathematics and culture

3. 1 Promote the interaction between college students' mathematics and social development. In fact, mathematics has been accompanied by the development of human society since its germination. They influence each other, promote each other and make progress together. On the one hand, the development of mathematics greatly affects the progress of human society. Hua, a famous mathematician in China, once pointed out that "the great universe, the tiny particles, the speed of rockets, the cleverness of chemical engineering, the change of the earth, the mystery of biology and the complexity of daily use" and other aspects reflect the instrumental role of mathematics everywhere, which is a good example. On the other hand, social progress has also strongly promoted the development of mathematics and become its main driving force. It can be seen that the development of mathematics and social progress are indeed interactive and inseparable. Offering the public elective course of mathematical culture can make college students realize the promotion of mathematics to social development, the source of mathematical knowledge and social needs, thus enabling them to establish a sense of social responsibility to learn mathematics well.

3.2 Cultivate college students' awareness of mathematical thinking. We know that mathematics is not a direct description of the objective world, but a qualitative grasp and quantitative description of the object to be known in an extremely abstract way. Therefore, we can observe and analyze the phenomena in daily life from the perspective of mathematics (mainly referring to the use of relevant mathematical thinking methods), think and judge some mathematical models contained in them, so as to solve some problems around us, that is to say, cultivate college students' mathematical consciousness, which has become one of the important signs to judge the level of a college student's mathematical literacy. Therefore, offering the public elective course of mathematics culture can help college students realize that mathematics is related to "me" and daily life, and further make them have the positive emotion of "I want to use mathematics, and I can also use mathematics", thus strengthening their mathematics consciousness and improving their mathematics literacy.

3.3 Expand college students' mathematical vision. The mathematical vision mentioned here is a generalized mathematical vision, which not only