Using Internet Aesthetic Mathematical Texts to Develop Secondary School Learners' Thinking Skills

This paper presents some internet aesthetic texts collected over a period of two years through chain message communications with colleagues located in different parts of the world. The aesthetic texts are grouped into four themes of mathematical magic, values, beauty, and prediction. Mathematical magic aesthetics show fascinating things that can be predetermined using computational skills. Aesthetics on mathematical values attempt to show the use of mathematics in religion, prompting reflections on whether mathematics was used to write the bible. Visual patterns involving numbers are used to show mathematical beauty, whilst a well reasoned and logical mathematical approach was used to predict the 2010 World Cup. When socially responsible teachers use these themes together with the four aspects of production, criticism, cultural/historical and judgment in the classroom, they may develop learners' appreciations of the aesthetics and beauty of mathematics. The appreciation may nurture in learners positive aesthetic emotional responses to mathematics that can act as a filter to sort out the joyous, elegant and harmonious mathematical ideas from those which are boring and monotonous. This inculcation may reduce the drill and practice mode of current mathematics instruction common in schools. Appropriate use of the themes in the mathematics classroom may motivate and nurture learners' interest during mathematics learning which in turn may reduce mathematics phobia that learners sometimes develop from the rote learning of the subject in which they regurgitate procedures, formulae and theorems.