Zoltan Dienes

Zoltán Pál Dienes , also Zoltan Paul Dienes, (born June 21, 1916 in Budapest , † January 11, 2014 in Nova Scotia ) was a Hungarian math teacher living in Canada.

Dienes grew up in Hungary, Austria, Italy and France and moved to England when he was 15. In 1939 he received his doctorate from the University of London . He also studied psychology and turned to mathematics didactics for children. Dienes was active worldwide, from developing math curricula in elementary schools to direct teaching, for example in the highlands of New Guinea.

He founded the International Study Group for Mathematics Learning and the Journal of Structural Learning and was director of the Center de Recherches en Psychomathématiques at the Université de Sherbrooke in Quebec for ten years.

He advocated learning math in elementary schools through games, songs, and dance so that the children often didn't even realize they were learning math concepts. To do this, he invented a block method of learning (Dienes Multibase Arithmetic Blocks).

Numerous books have been written by him, including an autobiography and a volume of poetry.

In 1952 he became a Quaker and translated the Gospels, Apostles' accounts and parts of Romans into poetry. In addition to Hungarian, he spoke fluent English, German, French and Italian. In 1938 he married Tessa Cooke (d. 2006), with whom he had five children.

He has received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Caen, Siena, Pécs, Mount Allison University and Exeter University. In 2003 he became a member of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group.

Books

• Concept formation and personality, London: Leicester Univ. Press, 1965
• Thinking in structures, London: Hutchinson Educational, 1965
• An experimental study of mathematics learning, London: Hutchinson, 1964
• The six stages in the mathematical learning process, Herder, 2nd edition 1975
• Methodology of modern mathematics: Basics for learning in cycles, Herder, 3rd edition 1975
• Modern mathematics in primary school, Herder, 1965, 6th edition 1974
• Structures in movement and rhythm, Herder 1974
• The way to the elements of mathematics, Herder 1973
• Mathematical thinking and logical games, Herder, 8th edition 1973
• Structure and Transfer, Herder 1972
• Fractional arithmetic, Herder, 1968, 2nd edition 1971
• The arithmetic of natural numbers, Herder, 3rd edition 1971
• The structure of mathematics, Herder, 4th edition 1970
• Thinking in structures, Herder, 2nd edition 1970
• Relations, Herder 1970
• School mathematics as an educational subject, Herder 1970
• Methodology of Modern Mathematics, Herder 1970
• The algebra of natural numbers, Herder 1967
• with EW Golding: Mathematics Lessons, Volume 1 (Mathematical Thinking and Logical Games), Herder, 5th Edition 1970, Volume 2 (Quantity, Number, Potency), Herder, 3rd Edition 1970, Volume 3 (The discovery of space and Practical measurement exercises), Herder, 3rd edition 1971
• Lebendige Mathematik, 4 volumes, Herder 1973/74 (Volume 1 Logic and Quantities, Volume 2 Relations and Functions, Volume 3 Numbers and Operators, Volume 4 Exploring Spatial Structures)
• Geometry, Herder 1972
• Zoo: Thinking game books for preschool and back to school, 5 volumes, Herder 1972
• with EW Golding: Abbildungsgeometrie, Herder 1969, 1970 (Volume 1 Topology and Shadow Geometry, Volume 2 Euclidean Geometry, Volume 3 Groups and Coordinates)
• Memoirs of a Maverick Mathematician, Minerva Press 1999
• with Michael Holt: Let's play Math, New York: Walker 1973
• I Will Tell You Algebra Stories You've Never Heard Before, Upfront Publ. 2003
• A Concrete Approach to the Architecture of Mathematics, University of Auckland, 2009
• Calls from the Past, Upfront Publ. 2003 (poems)

Web links

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