A study on Malaysian Mathematicians’ Way of Knowing

Introduction"Can you name me a mathematician? " "Einstein? ""Do you wish to become a mathematician one day? "If these questions were asked to the public or any school students, the most likely answer to both questions might be a big 'No! '. Why is this so? The director of the Public Understanding of Mathematics Forum, Gene Kloz (1996) claims that the mathematics profession is the most misunderstood in all of academia. According to him, the public thinks that mathematicians contemplate ancient proofs and work as lonely recluses. Moreover, the most common public image of a mathematician has been furnished by a physicist (example, Einstein) rather than a mathematician. Why is there such a lack of appreciation of mathematicians' work by the public? Although generally most people agree that mathematics is important in our daily life and useful for many careers, yet many people shy away from doing mathematics. In Malaysia, Lee et al. (1996) found that "the science and non-science student ratios have deteriorated from 31:69 in 1986 to 20:80 in 1993, indicating a drop of 11% in the proportion of students taking science subjects" (p.i). The most common reason as quoted by 58% of 766 Form 4 students and 59% of 489 Form 6 students for not choosing science was 'poor foundation in science and mathematics'. The other common reason was 'no confidence in mathematics" as quoted by 42.8% of Form 4 students and 48.1% of Form 6 students. These findings thus raise concern over the falling enrolment of students in science and mathematics. This is particularly so in the midst of preparing our youth for the era of information technology.These are some of the issues and problems that are of concern not only to mathematics educationists, but also to school administrators and parents. The related problems include students' mathematics performance in the SPM and STPM examinations which is still far from satisfactory, students' attitudes towards the learning of mathematics which is becoming more and more negative, the decline in the number of student choosing mathematics as a major subject in secondary schools and the small number of students majoring in mathematics in tertiary institutions.Indeed all of these problems and issues are closely related to one another. The negative attitudes towards mathematics or "mathematics phobia" and the perception that mathematics is a difficult subject certainly does not encourage a student to major mathematics in their tertiary education. Consequently, this shortage of mathematics graduates might result, as it has done in the UK (Hayes, 2002, Cassidy, 1998), in the shortage of mathematics teachers in schools as well as a shortage of mathematicians in Malaysia. As a result, mathematics might have to be taught by teachers who have not majored in mathematics. Ultimately, the problem of teaching and learning of mathematics in schools may become more serious.Various efforts have been made to improve the performance and attitudes towards mathematics of students. A number of studies have been carried out to find the causes of this negative attitude (for examples, Vanayan, et al., 1997; Elliott, et al., 1999; Gipps & Tunstall, 1998) and to research learning that is more effective and teaching strategies. However, most studies have concentrated on mathematics students who are weak in mathematics.Perhaps many researchers have forgotten that there exist a small number of students who are so interested in mathematics that they have taken up mathematics as their lifelong career. Who are these people? They include the mathematicians who teach and research in mathematics in universities. Why do they have such an intense interest in mathematics? What has attracted them to mathematical work? What are their experiences in learning mathematics that have motivated them to become mathematicians? Thus, this study aims to explore how mathematicians come to know mathematics, learn mathematics and research in mathematics. …