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The psychology of learning mathematics
508
BOOK REVIEWS
SKEMP, RICHARD R. The Psychology of Learning Mathematics. Harmondsworth Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1971, 319 pp. $2.25. The author is both a mathematician and a psychologist and, most unusual, he is expert in teaching both. In the first part of this intriguing book, he takes a sophisticated and scholarly look at the thought processes which people adopt when they do mathematics. In the second section, the ideas of part one are applied to some of the basic topics of mathematics. To appreciate fully the elegance of this latter section some knowledge of mathematical principles is essential. The reader is skillfully lead into a stage of "elementary mathematics from an adult viewpoint," in which everyday mathematical ideas and activities taken for granted by most of us are critically examined. Painlessly--or almost painlessly--the reader prepared to make the effort and possessing the necessary patience is guided from a stage of uninformed simplicity though one of doubt to emerge again into that higher state of simplicity based upon comprehension. What more can one ask.
SLUCKIN, W. (Ed.). Early Learning and Early Experience. Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1971, 416 pp. $3.45.
Harmondsworth,
Some 28 key papers are reprinted under the following section headings: Early Conditioning; Imprinting; Learning and Development; Restriction and Enrichment of Early Experience; The Development of Special Traits; Parental Deprivation in Infancy; Early Socialization in Animals and Man. While knowledge of developmental psychology is essential for the sophisticated behavior therapist, speculation is useless unless substantiated by data. The present collection of Readings is a most convenient way of putting the practitioner and academician alike in contact with research endeavor in the area of early influence.
LunIA, A. R., & YUDOVICH,17. IA. Speech and the Development of Mental Processes in the Child. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1971, 110 pp. $1.45. Published in the USSR in 1956 and translated into English in 1959 with the active collaboration of the original authors, this new edition has a forward by James Britton and a brief introduction by the senior author. If language and the second signal system is one of the primary means by which the typical behavior of a 4-year old is derived from that typical of the 2-year old, then the experiments reported by Luria and his associates over the years are surely seminal to a developmental approach to behavior therapy. The contributions of Soviet investigators such as Luria, Vigotsky, and Sokolov in the area of language development need no introduction to most readers of this Journal and it is heartening to see this particular book readily available in English at such little cost.
SHEPPARD, WILLIA1V~C., SHANK, STEVEN B., & WILSON, DA1RLA.HOW tO be a Good Teacher: Training Social Behavior in Young Children. Champaign, IL: 1979, 93 pp. $3.00. This is a very basic manual intended primarily for teachers of young children and those working in day care centers, Absolutely no previous knowledge of
BOOK REVIEWS
SKEMP, RICHARD R. The Psychology of Learning Mathematics. Harmondsworth Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1971, 319 pp. $2.25. The author is both a mathematician and a psychologist and, most unusual, he is expert in teaching both. In the first part of this intriguing book, he takes a sophisticated and scholarly look at the thought processes which people adopt when they do mathematics. In the second section, the ideas of part one are applied to some of the basic topics of mathematics. To appreciate fully the elegance of this latter section some knowledge of mathematical principles is essential. The reader is skillfully lead into a stage of "elementary mathematics from an adult viewpoint," in which everyday mathematical ideas and activities taken for granted by most of us are critically examined. Painlessly--or almost painlessly--the reader prepared to make the effort and possessing the necessary patience is guided from a stage of uninformed simplicity though one of doubt to emerge again into that higher state of simplicity based upon comprehension. What more can one ask.
SLUCKIN, W. (Ed.). Early Learning and Early Experience. Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1971, 416 pp. $3.45.
Harmondsworth,
Some 28 key papers are reprinted under the following section headings: Early Conditioning; Imprinting; Learning and Development; Restriction and Enrichment of Early Experience; The Development of Special Traits; Parental Deprivation in Infancy; Early Socialization in Animals and Man. While knowledge of developmental psychology is essential for the sophisticated behavior therapist, speculation is useless unless substantiated by data. The present collection of Readings is a most convenient way of putting the practitioner and academician alike in contact with research endeavor in the area of early influence.
LunIA, A. R., & YUDOVICH,17. IA. Speech and the Development of Mental Processes in the Child. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1971, 110 pp. $1.45. Published in the USSR in 1956 and translated into English in 1959 with the active collaboration of the original authors, this new edition has a forward by James Britton and a brief introduction by the senior author. If language and the second signal system is one of the primary means by which the typical behavior of a 4-year old is derived from that typical of the 2-year old, then the experiments reported by Luria and his associates over the years are surely seminal to a developmental approach to behavior therapy. The contributions of Soviet investigators such as Luria, Vigotsky, and Sokolov in the area of language development need no introduction to most readers of this Journal and it is heartening to see this particular book readily available in English at such little cost.
SHEPPARD, WILLIA1V~C., SHANK, STEVEN B., & WILSON, DA1RLA.HOW tO be a Good Teacher: Training Social Behavior in Young Children. Champaign, IL: 1979, 93 pp. $3.00. This is a very basic manual intended primarily for teachers of young children and those working in day care centers, Absolutely no previous knowledge of