Tímarit um menntarannsóknir - 01.01.2009, Page 63

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Tímarit um menntarannsóknir, 6. árgangur 2009
Gróska og stöðnun í stærðfræðimenntun 1880–1970
þeim verulega eftir fyrsta námsárið, varð
að nokkru marki til að viðhalda því ástandi
sem inntökuprófin sköpuðu og fræðslulögin
höfðu beinst gegn þó að aldursmörkin hefðu
færst ofar. Forsvarsmenn unglingastigsins
gátu ekki ákveðið hvaða námsefni hentaði
nemendum þess heldur voru þeir bundnir af
efra skólastigi.
Svo virðist sem reynt hafi verið að stöðva
tímans straum með ákvörðunum þeim sem
hér voru raktar; festa nemendafjölda Mennta-
skólans við ákveðna tölu, festa tilteknar
námsbækur fyrir skyldunámið sem „rétt“
námsefni Ríkisútgáfunnar og festa námsefni
fyrrum annars bekkjar Menntaskólans í
Reykjavík sem landsprófsefni. Allar þessar
ákvarðanir stöðvuðu þróunina í tvo til þrjá
áratugi á meðan þjóðfélagið tók stórstígum
breytingum sem og hugmyndir manna um
heppilegt námsefni og rétt til náms. Vissulega
verður að draga þann lærdóm af því sem
gerðist að allar veigamiklar ákvarðanir eigi að
vera í stöðugri endurskoðun en megi ekki fá
að verða steinrunnin minnismerki um horfna
tíma.
Abstract
Growth and Stagnation in Mathematics
Education in Iceland 1880–1970
Three decisions made in the period 1928–
1946 were of great consequence to school
development in Iceland, school mathematics
in particular, and caused stagnation up to the
mid-1960s. The decisions were to restrict
admission to the dominating Reykjavík
Grammar School in 1928, to establish a
textbook monopoly enterprise in 1937, and
to compromise with the Reykjavík Grammar
School to take its former syllabus for a national
entrance examination to the upper secondary
level in 1946. A conjecture is presented that
the combined effects of these three decisions
were to grant the upper secondary level strong
influence on the lower level curriculum and
hinder its development.
Background
By legislation in the Danish realm, to which
Iceland belonged until 1944, Latin schools
were divided into a language-history stream
and a mathematics science stream in 1871.
Until 1928 there was only one Icelandic Latin
school, which until 1919 was considered too
small to be divided into two streams; the
choice fell on the language-history stream in
1877.
In 1880 legislation was passed on public
education in writing and arithmetic. This
spurred publications of arithmetic textbooks
for children and adolescents. A number of
books were published during the following
decades until 1929. The pressure from the
upper school level was minimal in this period
as a mathematics-science stream at the Latin
school, later the Reykjavík Grammar school,
was first established in 1919.
In 1908 the Iceland Teacher Training College
was established. Its first mathematics teacher
was Ó. Daníelsson, who completed his doctorate
in geometry at the University of Copenhagen in
1909. Daníelsson published his elementary
Reikningsbók/Arithmetic, in 1906. Daníelsson
was appointed mathematics teacher at the
Reykjavík Grammar School in 1919. The 1920
edition of Daníelsson’s Arithmetic, adjusted
to his 14 year old freshmen, became very
influential and was republished until 1956.
Primary school teacher E. Bjarnason
published Reikningsbók/Arithmetic in two
volumes in 1927–1929 for the upper primary
level. Younger children were to be taught
at home to read, write, count and do basic
arithmetic. In his foreword, Bjarnason thanked
Daníelsson cordially for good advice. A close
inspection reveals that a number of items
from Daníelsson’s textbook are echoed in
Bjarnason’s book. Bjarnason’s textbook was
last republished in 1978.
Three consequential decisions
In the 1920s, the number of pupils seeking
admission to the Reykjavík Grammar School
greatly increased. No lower secondary schools