HISTORY AS A PLATFORM FOR DEVELOPING COLLEGE STUDENTS' EPISTEMOLOGICAL BELIEFS OF MATHEMATICS

The present study observed how Taiwanese college students' epistemological beliefs about mathematics evolved during a year-long historical approach calculus course. On the basis of the characteristics of initial accounts, seven students were invited to participate in this study and were divided into two groups. An open-ended questionnaire, mathematics biographies, in-class reports, and follow-up semi-structured interviews served as instruments for identifying their epistemological beliefs. Furthermore, four randomly selected students from another calculus class constituted the control group. Results indicated that most of the students receiving this course exhibited relatively significant changes in their epistemological beliefs of mathematics, but trends and extents in their epistemological development varied across groups as well as individuals. This study identifies the potential relationships among the course features, initial beliefs, and the tendency of belief development, followed by a discussion of the mechanism of belief change and an afterthought on HPM approach.