Report on the search teaching material and reflection by Agusti Eka Dyah Larasati on the first meeting of ethno mathematics lesson lectured by Prof. Dr. Marsigit, M.A.

On Thursday February 2nd, 2015, Mr. Marsigit explained about the importance of having awareness. We should have space and time awareness. We should appreciate time and should appreciate others. For example, when the other is talking, we should hear and pay attention to them. We should appreciate the other’s right.

If we have space and time awareness, we could get the meaning. For example, we can answer a question correctly if we aware, we can not answer properly if we are asleep.  After that, the meaning would become a knowledge. Then, if we already have knowledge, we can judge to act. The highest part is judge to act or to decide something.

There are two kinds of awareness, axiomatic awareness and factual awareness. Axiomatic awareness is awareness of the principles. Axiomatic things are on the sky, they are consistent and coherent. Axioms will not change. The highest principles are those things written in Al-Quran. The factual awareness is awareness of the materials. Factual things are on the earth. They are are suitable and correspondence. Axioms are the science and factual are the examples.

We can reach the axiomatic by our mind, after we have awareness of space and time.  And that is why education becomes important. The process from having space and time awareness until get the judge to act is called by hermeneutics. Hermeneutic is to translate and to be translated.

Axiom things are theory , paradigm, notions, arguments, statements, ,minds, logic. In education, examples of axiom things are method, curriculum, syllabi, lesson plan, ect. Factual things for example are culture, works, things, tools, Borobudur, temple, keraton. In education, factual things are measuring, finding, etc.

Ethnomatematics is mathematics contextual according to ethnics. For example making lesson plan, syllabi and student worksheets according to context of Borobudur Temple. To develop ethnomathematics, there are some base. Philosophical base, psychological base, social, spiritual, cognitive, cultural, and  scientific base.

In order to learn ethnomathematics, Mr. Masigit give us some resources. The first is https://uny.academia.edu/MarsigitHrd , Marsigit on staff.uny.ac.id , Mr. Marsigit’s data on google search, and Mr. Marsigit’s blog, http://powermathematics.blogspot.uny.ac.id .

In one of the learning material resources i found an article entitled Hermenitika Hidup the link is http://powermathematics.blogspot.com/2014/11/hermenitika-hidup_8.html , this article is related to Mr. Marsigit explanation in the previous meeting. In this article, i found a ilustration of hermeunitics of life. This illustration made me get deeper understanding about what is hermeunitics. In my understanding, hermeunitics is a process for someone from not knowing something until they learnt and know about that thing through some communication or interaction, in this case is to translate and to be translated. In the illustration, hermeunitics is not in circle or growing up line pattern, but in spiral pattern. That means that life is a process that going through, never ending as we increase our quality of life.

I also find an article entitled Imagination and Intuitive Knowledge of Mathematics. The link is http://powermathematics.blogspot.com/2014/10/imagination-and-intuitive-knowledge-of.html . This article tell us about the discussion from LinkedIn. The disscusion is about  “Do you think that students find difficulties for the imagination in mathematics especially in geometry? If you think so,what's the technics used for solving this situation?”. One of Mr. Marsigit’s opinion is Imagination lies in Intuitions, however teaching activities frequently have not developed intuitions yet or even have eliminated them. From my opinion, we can relate it to our lecture, we can develop students intuition with culture or ethno based mathematics.

Questions

What is ethnomathematics’ learning objectives ?

What contribution can be given by ethnic-based mathematics to the development of mathematics education in Indonesia ?