Introduction

As with the construction of any secondary mathematics education course, a course on the history of mathematics for teaching can assume many different forms. For example, if the secondary mathematics education major resides in a Department of Mathematics, the course may tend to be more of a pure mathematics course instead of one with explicit attention to pedagogical ideas. Alternatively, if the course is a College of Education offering, it may shed some of its strict mathematical content and concentrate more on biographical, anecdotal, or pedagogical information. In recent years, what constitutes a history of mathematics course has become the subject of discussion for different audiences focused on undergraduate mathematics teaching [6]. Given the professional discussion that takes place about the content of history of mathematics courses in general, I conducted a study to investigate undergraduate mathematics education students' learning in the course, Using History in the Teaching of Mathematics (or, Using History), over four semesters. A natural consequence of the research has been to reflect on subsequent offerings of the course in order to revise topics and assignments for the purpose of fulfilling course objectives. Each of the objectives was designed to create opportunities for pre-service mathematics teachers (PSMTs) to consider using the history of mathematics in their future teaching.

As part of a broader inquiry, I began with the following research questions:

1. 1) In what ways does the study of the history of mathematics impact PSMTs' mathematical, historical, and pedagogical knowledge?

2. […]