Numerals in the ancient China: a laboratory to discover number systems

Abstract

Stimulating the exploration of mathematical contents is a very fascinating and complex activity for primary school teachers. This teaching experiment carried out in a fourth-grade class relates to a possible path in vertical continuity, since it is the adaptation of an activity experienced in the lower secondary school, with a focus on the mathematics laboratory, as a basis for students’ exploration of contents. Through formative assessment strategies and mathematical discussion, the pupils were confronted with the Chinese numeral system, putting into play their skills in mathematics as well as in the history field, in an interdisciplinary perspective. Starting, in fact, from the exploration of the Tartaglia-Pascal triangle, contained in an ancient Chinese mathematics textbook, the students were able to develop mathematical skills in the field of numbers in line with an active and conscious citizenship education.