History and Philosophy of Mathematics as a Framework for Teacher Preparation

This paper claims that the awareness of crucial philosophical questions and controversies, which have arisen during the historical evolution of fundamental concepts, ideas, and processes in mathematics, should be an essential component of the professional knowledge of student teachers who intend to teach children mathematics. Based on the above perspective, a course has been designed and implemented in a Greek university. It uses themes from the history of mathematics as scaffolding for the introduction of prospective teachers to the questions and controversies raised by various philosophical approaches to mathematics throughout its historical development. At the end of the 1990"s