ATTENDING TO THE AESTHETIC IN THE

MATHEMATICS CLASSROOM
NATHALIE SINCLAIR

[Mr. S begins §3.5, “Solving equations with variables on way of getting that answer. In fact, more is at stake than effi-
both sides.”] ciency; this is about “defeat[ing] the algebra beast,”
Mr. S: The book says that if you find variables on exterminating those ugly fractions and long, arduous methods
both sides, eliminate them from one side. of manipulating symbols. By using one simple multiplica-
[He writes 3/8 – 1/4x = 1/2x – 3/4 on the board tion to turn the equation above into 3 – 2x = 4x – 6, the teacher
and asks students how they could solve the communicates to the students that certain forms are easier to
equation.] work with than others. When the students see what happens
to the equation after he applies his “secret weapon,” they
Nicole: Subtract 1/2x from both sides of the equa- respond with “ooohs” and “aaahs” – one students says “I
tion. [Nicole provides more instructions, like that way.” The computer might not distinguish the two
which Mr. S. follows.] forms, but the thinking and feeling human being would
much rather work with integers.
Mr. S: Is there something we could do to make it One way in which to view my question about aesthetic
more efficient? You’ll find that as we go concerns in the classroom is to link it to research on the devel-
through the book you’ll have more tech- opment of socio-mathematical norms. Yackel and Cobb
niques – you get weapons to defeat the (1996) conceptualise this development in terms of the ways in
algebra beast. I would have multiplied the which students learn what is mathematically different, sophis-
whole thing by 8. That’s a secret weapon I ticated, efficient and elegant. However, they focus primarily
have in my pocket. on mathematical difference and fail to develop the more aes-
How do aesthetic considerations play out in the mathematics thetic norms related to mathematical sophistication, efficiency
classroom? This question, and my initial attempt to answer and elegance. The teacher is offering aesthetic guidance,
it here, represents a change in focus from previous work, in albeit somewhat covertly, and we could ask whether talk
which I have argued that the aesthetic is fundamental to about form and efficiency might become normative in the
mathematical thinking and learning (see Sinclair, 2001, classroom. In other words, using the language of Bishop
2004, 2006). That work identified three characteristic ways (1991), we could ask whether the teacher is enculturating the
in which mathematicians (including student-mathemati- students by drawing their attention to relationships to knowl-
cians) engage their aesthetic sensibilities in the process of edge valued by the mathematics culture. [1]
posing and solving problems. It defined the aesthetic as a
guiding ‘sense of fit’ (see Gombrich, 1979, in the realm of Framing the school mathematical aesthetic
the arts and Wechsler, 1978, in the realm of the sciences) In taking an aesthetic perspective, I choose to focus more
that intermingles cognition and affect – feelings are essential closely on a restricted set of the thoughts, actions and prac-
components of aesthetic responses. tices of students and teachers in the classroom. I do so in part
Now I wish to shift the focus from the aesthetic responses because aesthetic perspectives have thus far taken a back seat
of an individual doing mathematics to the aesthetic values to the cognitive, affective and social perspectives adopted in
communicated at the whole classroom level. From a prag- most research. This despite the claims of writers such as
matist point of view, aesthetic values are involved in choices Dewey (1934), Dissanayake (1992), Johnson (2007), Papert
we make about what constitutes satisfactory and desirable (1980) and Schiralli (1989), who argue that the aesthetic
outcomes (see Cherryholmes, 1999; Dewey, 1934). Since should not be overlooked insofar as it is intimately intermin-
aesthetic values are subjective and contextualized, they are gled with all dimensions of human thought and activity,
developed and shared in social interactions. It is in the nor- including the cognitive and the social. How then might we
mative practices of the classroom that students will learn to account for the fact that the aesthetic is regularly overlooked
be aware of aesthetic considerations – or not. by classroom participants or even by outside observers?
In the short transcript of a classroom episode presented Perhaps the mathematics classroom simply drives the aes-
above, even without invoking an explicit language of aes- thetic sensitivities of teachers and students away. Perhaps
thetics (words such as beauty and elegance), we see the those sensibilities are engaged but in ways that never
teacher communicating to students that he values efficiency become explicit or overt enough to be shared and commu-
in solving mathematical problems. His words imply that it is nicated. Or, perhaps our ideas of the mathematical aesthetic
not just the answer that matters, or its correctness, but the are simply too rigid and elitist, calling forth a sense of

For the Learning of Mathematics 28, 1 (March, 2008) 29

FLM Publishing Association, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
‘museum mathematics’ having inaccessible criteria such as (the means, principles, techniques, methods) and why
‘elegance’ and ‘depth.’ Even when our ideas of the mathe- they are worth attending to (in pursuit of the beautiful,
matical aesthetic are attentive to process – and not just the the good, the right, the useful, the ideal, the perfect or,
final published work of art – they draw on the practices of simply, the true). (p. 160; italics in original)
research mathematicians who pose their own problems, try His formulation provides a way to identify forms of com-
to solve problems that may have no solutions, and have to munication in the classroom that are aesthetic in nature. The
communicate their solutions according to certain discipli- following three sections will thus be organised around these
nary styles. While mathematical creation may well three strategies of the what, the how and the why. My goal in
constitute the primary activity of a research mathematician, applying the frame is to see whether it offers better insights
it certainly does not constitute the primary work of teachers into the apparent paradox described above, and better strate-
and students of school mathematics. Teachers explain ideas, gies for aesthetic enculturation.
work through examples and offer tasks or exercises; they The episode introducing this article occurred while I was
assign homework, interpret textbooks, and evaluate stu- observing a Grade 7 lesson. In the following sections, I will
dents’ responses to questions and problems. Students try to offer several more examples taken from the same classroom.
answer questions or work on exercises. What might the aes- I visited it twice per week for approximately two months.
thetic dimension of this sort of classroom activity have to The teacher is the head of the middle school mathematics
do with the aesthetics of research mathematics? group, and is very experienced. He uses technology exten-
Indeed, one could hardly count the simplifying of alge- sively, frequently participates in professional development
braic equations among the canonically beautiful ideas of opportunities, and has been involved in several university-
mathematics. Yet, both the teacher and the students respond based research projects. I take his classroom teaching as a
pleasurably to the transformation of 3/8 – 1/4x = 1/2x – 3/4 into case study allowing me to exercise a whole-classroom aes-
3 – 2x = 4x – 6. Surely, they are relieved to see those beastly thetic lens, and to probe for examples of or opportunities
fractions disappear. But perhaps also the lack of denomina- for aesthetic enculturation.
tors reveals a certain structure that was missing beforehand.
The technique is not actually more efficient, if one counts What to attend to in the mathematics class-
the number of steps required to solve for x, and it does not room
give a more correct solution, but it offers a certain satisfying, Teachers are often preoccupied with what to teach, if only by
and perhaps surprising, reduction of complexity. virtue of endless standards, frameworks and prescribed learn-
In describing his technique as “efficient,” the teacher ing outcomes that typically offer long lists of what students
alludes to a characteristic that several mathematicians count should know. Textbooks offer their own version of what to
as chief among aesthetic qualities in mathematics (Hardy, attend to. So, in looking for examples of aesthetic considera-
1940; Schattschneider, 2006). Geometers used to revel in tions with respect to the what, there needs to be something
being able to undertake a construction in fewer steps than about the problem, element or object that is distinguished or
Euclid. In this sense, efficiency motivated a great deal of privileged from the background of the given content of the
geometric work. The reward was not in being able to save curriculum or textbook. In the lessons I observed, I saw three
time or make more money, but in finding a new, often more episodes during which the students were placed in the pres-
clever way of navigating a problem. With their responses, ence of value-driven choices about content.
the students communicate some appreciation for the new The first episode occurred when the teacher was introduc-
tool introduced by the teacher. Maybe only half the class ing his students to the Cartesian coordinate system. He
verbalized their responses, but those “ooohs” and “aaahs” began by explaining the way in which the coordinate sys-
were, for a brief moment, palpably present and persuasive. tem was broken up into four different quadrants. He then
I’m inclined to see this episode as an example of aesthetic talked about words associated with using the coordinate sys-
sensibility in the mathematics classroom, albeit one that may tem, such as domain and range. He also established that the
have passed unnoticed by many observers. students knew how to identify or plot particular points on the
While many mathematics classrooms succeed in anes- coordinate system. Finally, he said, “one other thing that you
thetising teachers and students alike, I believe that certain don’t have to memorise. It’s called ‘completeness.’ There’s
opportunities for developing aesthetic sensibilities in the only one way to name a point [on the coordinate system].”
classroom are being overlooked and underdeveloped. Using a specific coordinate point, he explained that one and
Researchers do not recognise them. Teachers are not aware only one pair of coordinates was associated with it.
of them. Students do not count them as relevant or impor- In introducing the notion of “completeness” [2] last, and
tant. We need a new approach to identifying aesthetic telling the students they do not have to memorise it (which
possibilities in the mathematics classroom that has greater probably means they would not be tested on it), the teacher’s
continuity with ways of framing the aesthetic in other human language sets the notion apart from the other ideas he had
endeavours, including art. I thus propose Pimm’s (2006) introduced and explained. If it’s not something they have to
pragmatic formulation of the aesthetic, which satisfies this memorise, then he must be telling them because he thinks
goal while being consonant with known aesthetic aspects of this idea is interesting. But do the students appreciate that
research mathematics. Pimm writes: the whole point and power of the coordinate system is that
Aesthetic considerations concern what to attend to (the by virtue of this “completeness,” it allows us to visually dis-
problems, elements, objects), how to attend to them tinguish different functions. What is amazing about the

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coordinate system is that it allows us to attach locations to students to laugh when the number one million was pro-
any ordered pair of a real-valued function. What an absurd posed. Suggesting one million and, later, π had violated
– though potentially interesting – idea it would be to imag- some kind of unspoken protocol about the numbers that
ine a coordinate system with only an upper right quadrant, appear in algebra class. Similarly, after his preposterous
where the point (1,3) also represented (-1,-3). Or a coordi- mapping, the students are laughing about the way in which
nate system that retained regions for non-real numbers. mathematics can canonise arbitrariness (or even violation).
This seems like an example in which the teacher high- Arthur Schopenhauer’s definition of laughing, as “a struggle
lights for students something that is important in between epistemological levels, namely between a concept
mathematics – perhaps more so than vocabulary and and a particularity,” seems to describe the students’ response
method. Indeed, the very idea that each point has one and quite well. They are noticing the incongruity between the
only one coordinate pair exemplifies the highly valued prop- concept that a relation involves a mapping between two
erty of uniqueness in mathematics (Davis & Hersh, 1981). objects and the particularity of one million being related to
The students did not respond to the teacher’s comment, and -23.79. Their laughter is an emotional response to appre-
possibly chose to ignore it given that it was not test-worthy. hending that incongruity. Thus, insofar as laughter can be
In the second episode, the aesthetic consideration focuses seen as an aesthetic form, this episode shows both an
more specifically on mathematical objects. This episode instance of the teacher drawing attention to mathematical
occurred during a later class, when the teacher introduced value and of the students responding aesthetically – in a
the idea of relations and showed the students that relations combination of emotion and understanding (or affect and
involve one-to-one mappings of objects. He drew two cir- cognition) – to his prompting.
cular shapes on the interactive whiteboard and then, having The next episode relates to the use of mathematical lan-
asked students to pick some numbers, started placing these guage and notation. The teacher had introduced the idea of
numbers in each shape. The first student offered 7, the sec- inequalities and had worked with the students through solv-
ond 15, and then the third, one million, with the latter ing several inequalities that involved adding and subtracting
number generating quite a bit of laughter in the classroom. terms from both sides of the equation. He then asked the stu-
After they had proposed six different numbers, including - dents to solve the inequality 29 + g ≤ 68: “Let’s pick some
23.79, the teacher said, “I was sure one of you were going numbers that will work.” After the students had suggested a
to say ‘pi,’” which led to more laughter. When the teacher few, he continued: “Here’s the issue: do we really want to
had finished writing the various numbers down, he asked the sit here and show all your answers?” The students responded
students how they should be matched, and then remarked, as with a chorus of “no.” He then showed them that they could
he drew an arc from the one million to the -23.79: “I think simply write g ≤ 39 as the meta-solution that included all of
one million matches perfectly with negative twenty-three their specific solutions, and asked: “Is that more useful to
point seven nine.” More laughter ensued. us?” Again, the students concurred that it was.
I highlight three moves made by the teacher that commu- By juxtaposing their initial attempts at a solution with his
nicate to the students the arbitrariness of numbers: first, he own proposal, the teacher was asking the students to attend
willingly accepts one million as a number; second, he sug- to the efficiency of a particular mathematical notation, as
gests that the students could have just as easily chosen π; well as indirectly advancing the idea that brevity, succinct-
and, third, he claims a perfect match between a million and ness and completeness are valued in mathematics. In
-23.79. Accepting a million, which is a number the students focusing directly on these aspects of a solution, the teacher
almost never work with in their algebra class, places it on draws attention to the notation itself, and away from the
an equal footing with more common numbers relative to his actual numbers that solve the problem. His attention to nota-
question. Proposing π further communicates that any num- tion in this case is interesting, since there are many other
ber will do, even the most absurd. And making the kinds of notation that he introduces without making the kind
preposterous mapping between a million and -23.79, indi- of comparison he did here (including the use of letters to
cates that, in fact, the actual numbers do not matter: the name variables or the use of the (x,y) notation to name posi-
mathematical approach is to look past the numbers, accept tions on the coordinate grid). In this example, one wonders
their arbitrariness and focus on the mapping itself. What one whether students might not have come to a greater aware-
attends to is the relationships, not the numbers; the students ness of the appeal of the new notation had they been forced
could have just as easily chosen to say a number in French or to live a while longer with their existing way of solving
offer a hexadecimal digit – or, as the teacher later illustrates, inequalities. Might a student have asked at some point,
names of cars. whether it was really necessary to write all those numbers
By suggesting π, the teacher is also being playful, encour- down? As it was, the aesthetic awareness seemed to go unex-
aging the students to mess around with the mathematics, and ploited, with little visible feeling of having simplified a
propose numbers as fancifully as they wish. The playful- complex phenomenon, and with an added sense – yet again
ness may even have begun earlier, when the students – of the arcane ways in which mathematics teachers expect
propose one million. Conjuring these numbers may well students to communicate.
have the effect of endorsing what Le Lionnais (1948/1986) In all three examples, the teacher made quite mindful
would call a “romantic” aesthetic tendency (as opposed to a choices about presenting aspects of mathematics that are
“classical” one) that gravitates toward the transgressive, valued, including uniqueness, arbitrariness and efficiency.
chaotic and bizarre (rather than the ordered and harmo- The second example elicited more visible (and emotionally-
nious). It may have been this trangressivity that caused the charged) response from the students and it was also perhaps

31
the one in which the values in question were least explicitly find certain approaches easier to understand than others.
communicated – in the first example the teacher refers Their motivations are pedagogical. Mathematicians value
directly to “completeness,” and in the third example to different explanations to improve their own understanding
what’s “useful.” In contrast, the second example involves and to satisfy their desire for solutions that are more sim-
the teacher successfully setting the students up to experience ple, elegant, clever and even enlightening. The teacher offers
something anomalous and perhaps disconcerting, so that the second approach because it “may make more sense,”
the more cognitive concept of arbitrariness was accompa- but also points out that it offers “further proof” of the flip
nied (or preceded) by an affective response. method. The latter statement suggests the mathematical
value of rationalism described by Bishop, in which logical
Why things are worth attending to in the connection and cohesion between ideas is deemed important
mathematics classroom (and inconsistencies, disagreements or incongruities that
In the third episode, the teacher’s statements draw attention arise from personal interpretations of ideas are shunned).
to why it is worth attending to the new notation. The teacher The truth has already been laid out, and the teacher is now
drew on the criterion of usefulness in order to compare the showing how it fits with other ideas with which the students
two ways of solving an inequality. He also later showed the are already familiar.
students a “set-theory notation” way of writing the solution The third example may seem to contrast with the previous
({g | g ≤ 39}) and said: “That’s the formal way. On a test one in that it reveals the importance of a personal relation-
you’ll probably get it right [if you write g ≤ 39] except one ship to mathematics and the aesthetic experience of
little [deducted percentage] point to show there’s a better understanding. When introducing the idea of relations, the
way that’s the mathematical way.” teacher wrote down the textbook definition on the interac-
The language here reveals a new perspective on why the tive whiteboard: “A set of ordered pairs.” He then proceeded
solution might be worth considering. The “formal way” is to say, “I’ve copied the definition from the book. But I have
described as being “more mathematical,” but it is also longer got my own way of saying it.” He then wrote underneath
and more cumbersome than the previous one (g ≤ 39). The the first definition: “One group of numbers is matched up
teacher implies that “more mathematical” is more worthy – to another group of numbers in some related way.”
literally, worth one more point on the test! In telling the stu- The teacher here didn’t offer his definition as one that
dents that he would accept both solutions, he suggests that might be easier for the students to understand. He invited the
both are correct, but that one is more right than the other. students to consider his definition precisely because it is
The imperative of aesthetic fit trumps the simple certitude of his, thus suggesting that people may have individual under-
mathematical correctness. The more “formal way” is actu- standings of mathematical concepts and that it is acceptable
ally more precise, or communicative, in that it makes to work with definitions that are personally useful or rele-
explicit the domain of application. Without explicit guidance vant. In this example, the teacher expresses a clear
though, the students are likely to deduce that the new nota- discomfort with the textbook definition – a negative aes-
tion is yet another confusing bit of formalism. How often thetic response in the sense that the definition does not fit his
might it be the case that issues of aesthetic nature in mathe- way of understanding the concept of relation. [3] Of course,
matics are thus misrepresented to students? How might the for the students, the teacher’s definition may not be any less
teacher have helped students understand why the “mathe- authoritarian and depersonalised than that of the textbook, in
matical way” might be preferred? which case the teacher’s possessive declaration would
Later, when working on inequalities, the teacher again hardly communicate the possibility or value of personal
provided the students with different ways of doing things. meaning.
This time, instead of appealing to the format of the solu- None of these examples seem to elicit much response
tion, the teacher summoned a mathematical value that from the students: they listened and nodded. However, the
accounts for the frequency with which mathematicians teacher is clearly drawing attention to different values
endeavour to find different solutions or proofs to problems related to why things are written or explained the way they
that have already been solved. He was showing the students are (for precision, for connection and for personal meaning).
that when an inequality involves multiplying or dividing by
a negative number on both sides, one must “flip the sign” How to attend in the mathematics classroom
in order for the original inequality to continue to hold. He One of the most direct ways in which the teacher talked
then said, “I want to show you another way of doing this that
about the methods used in mathematics came just after he
may make more sense.” Starting with the inequality -3x >
had finished explaining the labeling of the coordinate grid
27, he showed the students that they could simply add 3x to
quadrants. He announced: “Mathematicians love to name
both sides of the inequality and solve without having to mul-
things because then they can talk about them,” and then
tiply or divide by a negative number. After obtaining the
introduced the terms domain and range.
solution, he asked, “Do I get the same answer?” The stu-
The teacher seems to be conveying to the students the idea
dents agreed, and he said, “You see further proof that you
that naming something can be a means of attending to it in
have to flip it.”
mathematics. Halliday (1978) speaks to the extreme salience
In showing the students this new way of solving the prob-
of what we choose to name in orienting our attention:
lem, the teacher emphasises that both ways lead to the same
solution. Of course, teachers often try to explain things to languages have different patterns of meaning – differ-
students in different ways, knowing that some students will ent “semantic structures,” in the terminology of

32
 linguistics. These are significant for the ways their we can work with inequalities just like we can work with
speakers interact with one another; not in the sense that equations. Why in the world would you do problems like
they determine the ways in which the members of the this? I don’t know, just for the fun of it I guess. The point is
community perceive the world around them, but in the that you have tools in your toolbox to solve these now.”
sense that they determine what the members of the How does one attend in mathematics? The teacher says
community attend to. (p. 198) that it is by generalizing to new contexts techniques that
worked before, and by playing around to make things that
Humans are born into a world of the already-named and so
were too obvious into things that are more complex. The
mathematicians liking to name signals a strong fondness
teacher also suggests the rather Hardyesque principle that
for orienting attention in specific ways for particular ends.
mathematical machinations need not lead to useful or applic-
By telling students that mathematicians “love” naming
able ideas – they can be just “for the fun of it.”
things, the teacher also communicated to them that know-
In the previous three sections, I offered examples of ways
ing the names of things – and perhaps coming up with your in which the teacher, in his actions and especially his spoken
own names – is valuable in mathematics. Indeed, the teacher language, draws on aesthetic values in mathematics. Once
alluded to the pleasure that comes from human symbolic again, the students did not seem particularly responsive to
agency. The students may not be aware that not everything the teacher’s attempts in that they did not comment, ask
once had names, and that there may still be things left to questions or show any emotional response. The two excep-
name, even on the coordinate grid. Why not name all those tions were with the introductory algebra beast episode and
grid lines that are parallel to the x-axis? Why not give the the matching numbers example. In the next section, I con-
diagonals a special name, especially since they signify an sider a slightly different way of conceptualizing the
interesting transition between slopes less than or greater than aesthetic, in which the teacher tries explicitly to evoke aes-
one for linear functions? thetic responses in the students, like he succeeded in doing
The teacher drew attention to a rather different technique with the two exceptions.
that can be useful and interesting in mathematics. After he
had defined the idea of relations and provided examples (as Designing for aesthetic response in the math-
was described above), he drew two little coordinate systems ematics classroom
on the interactive whiteboard. One had a random set of In describing the work of the artist, Dewey (1934) writes
points on it and the other had a set of collinear points. He that creating an artifact of aesthetic import “involves the
said, “A relation can be random or could follow a pattern. ability to manipulate form (media) in order to express and
Algebra is good here [pointing to the linear pattern]. This is create within the observer the desired emotional response”
more interesting because there is some pattern I can use.” (p. 51). Similarly, we can think of the teacher as manipulat-
By telling the students when algebra is good, he is cast- ing form in order to evoke within her students a desired
ing it as a technique that can be used to describe certain intellectual and emotional response. Since the teacher is try-
relations. When using algebra, one attends to linear sorts of ing to manufacture a pedagogically appropriate response,
patterns, not to random arrangements. The teacher also the manipulation of form has to connect the mathematics
speaks to the what to attend to when he describes the linear explicitly with the students.
pattern as being interesting. He even addresses the why in The episode I will describe lasted only five minutes, but
saying that linear patterns are worth attending to because “I was built on a much longer sequence of shared experiences.
can use” them. Indeed, the above example illustrates quite The students had begun the year working with equations of
clearly the connections between the three aesthetic consid- the form x + a = b, learning how to isolate the variable x by
erations I have distinguished. In particular, one might expect adding or subtracting from both sides of the equation. Then
the what and the why to intermingle quite easily, with the lat- they moved on to equations that involved multiplying or
ter providing the justification for the former. This dividing both sides of the equation, before progressing to
justification may be the most difficult component of the equations where all four arithmetic operations had to be used
teacher’s work: the curriculum requires that students attend to isolate the variable. Finally, they worked on equations that
to linear patterns, but why might such patterns be worth involved variables on both sides of the equals sign. The
attending to? It would be hard to argue that they are the best teacher began the day’s lesson by writing the equation 5n +
at describing real, everyday phenomena. 4 = 7(n + 1) – 2n on the board, and asking the students to
Finally, I consider an example in which the teacher solve it. The students started giving him instructions about
describes the methods used in mathematics to deal with new how to proceed, first multiplying out the 7 and then
situations. The teacher was introducing the idea of inequali- rearrange, and subtract 2n from 7n on the right, and then
ties. He asked the students how they would write “eight is subtract 5n to both sides. He performed each step carefully
greater than five” and then wrote “8 > 5” on the interactive and slowly, writing down all the manipulations clearly on
whiteboard. He then said, “We won’t study this a whole lot the board. As he went along, a growing number of comments
because there’s not something interesting going on. We’re were made, such as “uh-oh,” and then some facial cringes
going to play around with that a little.” After showing the would be seen, and when he wrote down the final,
students that they can solve inequalities such as x + 4 < 2, inescapable line 4 = 7, the students had become quite bois-
which involve adding to or subtracting from both sides of terous, shouting out “it’s impossible” and “but 4 will never
the inequality, he remarked: “It looks like we can add and equal 7.” The teacher smiled and said, “In real-life some-
subtract and things will stay the same. That’s nice because times there are no solutions.”

33
 The students’ collective response of surprise, pleasure and Concluding remarks
understanding provides a first indicator that the teacher suc- To be sure, the class never discussed the beauty of a proof or
ceeded in offering an aesthetic artifact. He purposefully set the the elegance of a theorem. These would be the traditional
students up for their reaction by letting them go along as they ways in which the mathematical aesthetic makes itself known
had done thus far. He let the final, impossible statement of 4 in the public educational arena. And, as Dreyfus and Eisen-
= 7 emerge out of the course of common, acceptable steps of berg (1986) note, these would be difficult endeavours for
simplifying, instead of, say, declaring ahead of time the students, who are often still struggling to understand the
impossibility of solving some equations or trying to get the proof or who have never even heard the word theorem
students to determine a priori the problem with the equation. before. This article attempts to develop greater awareness of
The students’ response indicates that they “bought into” the the different ways in which the aesthetic nudges its way into
absurdity of the mathematics. And, instead of feeling everyday classroom events. In broadening aesthetic consid-
oppressed, anxious or confused by it, they were genuinely erations in mathematics from a very narrow focus on certain
regaled. prized artifacts (proofs and theorems) to a much wider atten-
I see this as an instance of the teacher manipulating his tion to the multitude of choices, preferences and values that
media – including his performance, his text – in order to pervade mathematics, I argue for an increased access to who
elicit an aesthetic response for the students. Like an artist can particulate in the aesthetic considerations of mathematics
who intends to shock or soothe, he had anticipated the way (including teachers and students) and when they can do so
in which his students would respond, and chose his actions (not only when proving theorems or reviewing journal arti-
to suit their expectations. It’s important to note that the cles, but in thinking about how to write a definition or why
moment of surprise and juxtaposition he offered was only one kind of notation might be better than another).
possible because of the previous, extended experience of Dewey’s conception of the aesthetic as a theme in human
equations working-out (leading to solutions). It would be experience, as a way that humans organize and derive mean-
impossible to find aesthetic pleasure in constant change and ing from everyday situations in which they find themselves,
surprise. This realization suggests that aesthetic experiences differs from the usual conception of aesthetics, which deals
may not occur too frequently in the classroom. However, as with the nature of perceptually interesting aspects of phe-
with the long-term effect of a positive affect (Goldin, 2000), nomena. Pimm’s framework provides an effective way of
these relatively rare experiences can provide learners with locating aesthetic values in the mathematics classroom – the
enough motivation to overcome periods of drudgery or to interesting aspects of school mathematical ideas – and of
seek out similar experiences on their own. pointing to specific modes of enculturation that are usually
This example focused largely on the nature of the stu- not foregrounded in classroom observations. Having located
dents’ emotional responses to a given situation, and on the these values, the question then becomes whether, in the
way in which the teacher manufactured those responses. But kinds of examples described above, the teacher succeeds in
of course, as mathematics educators, we are not simply reaching and registering with students? Does the teacher
interested in students’ emotions; the artifact becomes a need to be more explicit about these values? In evaluating
mathematically aesthetic one only when the media fits the examples offered, it seems that the more effective
together in some integral way with the mathematics. That is attempts at enculturation occurred when the teacher was able
to say, it is the interaction of the emotion with understanding to engage the students’ emotions, as Dewey would have pre-
and mathematical meaning that gives rise to the aesthetic dicted. The teacher may point explicitly to instances of
artifact. In the example, the students do not just respond with simplicity, efficiency and utility, but the importance of such
surprise and intrigue because of a silly joke the teacher has values need to be felt – describing and prescribing them may
told. They respond because something mathematically only further contribute to the loss of choice and satisfaction
absurd is going to happen or has just happened, and because often experienced in school mathematics.
their verbal interjections provide a way for them to commu-
nicate the fact they understand this. What I mean to stress Notes
here is the continuity of the students’ responses with their [1] Values can be either ethical in nature or aesthetic. Bishop does not dis-
mathematical engagement; their emotions are not mere tinguish between the two, but does point to the ways in which several of the
values held in the culture of (western) mathematics have ethical implica-
epiphenomena of the mathematics. tions. On the whole, mathematicians have recognised aesthetic values much
It is possible to read this example in terms of Pimm’s more than ethical ones.
framework as well, with the teacher drawing attention to the [2] In using the term “completeness,” the teacher was referring to what
romance of the mathematically impossible by juxtaposing mathematicians call “well-definedness” of the coordinate representation;
well-behaved sequences of algebraic manipulation with less technically, completeness is a property of the real numbers.
[3] In looking for examples of teachers’ aesthetic moves, it might be fruit-
well-behaved ones. (Interestingly, it was a similar sense of ful to pay attention to ways in which they choose to position themselves
juxtaposition that provoked the only example of emotional relative to their textbooks; in this case, we see the teacher establishing a free-
response in the examples of the previous sections.) However, trade zone of local relevance at the border of various imposed definitions.
this way of reading the example reveals little of the necessary This provides him with some much-needed axiological space. The work of
Herbel-Eisenmann (2007) touches on this; she describes different ways in
interaction between the teacher and the students in evoking which middle school teachers are subordinate, or not, to their textbooks.
and nurturing aesthetic responses. What Pimm’s framework
does offer, however, is a new way of interpreting the ele- References
ments of school mathematics that may invite students to Bishop, A. (1991) Mathematica enculturation: a cultural perspective on math-
engage with mathematics at a more aesthetic level. ematics education, Dordrecht, Netherlands, Kluwer Academic Publishers.

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Birkhäuser. clair, N., Pimm, D. and Higginson, W. (eds), Mathematics and the
Dewey, J. (1934) Art as experience, New York, NY, Capricorn Books. aesthetic: new approaches to an ancient affinity, New York, NY,
Dissanakye, E. (1992) Homo aestheticus, New York, NY, Free Press. Springer, pp. 160-189.
Dreyfus, T. and Eisenberg, T. (1986) ‘On the aesthetics of mathematical Schattschneider, D. (2006) ‘Beauty and truth in mathematics’, in Sinclair,
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I would like to encourage mathematicians, indeed anyone who has responsibility for the learn-
ing of mathematics, to open mathematical activity to include the subjectivity of intuitions, to
model their own intuitive processes, to create the conditions in which learners are encouraged
to value and explore their own and their colleagues’ intuitions and the means that they use to
gather them. This seems to me to be a necessary step which provides a justification for, but
is prior to, the search for convincing and, ultimately, proof.

(Leone Burton (1980) ‘Why is intuition so important to mathematicians but missing from
mathematics education?’, For the Learning of Mathematics, 19(3), 27-32)

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