THE ALGEBRA OF ABU JA'FAR MUHAMMAD IBN MUSA AL-KHWARIZMI: CONTRIBUTIONS TO TEACHING
History of Mathematics. Medieval Islamic Mathematics. Al-Khwarizmi. History and teaching.
Recognizing that medieval Islamic mathematics has produced several names of first-rate scholars, the present research focuses on the work Al-Kitāb al-mukhtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-jabr wal-muqābala (Book of Restoration and Balancing), better known such as al-Khwarizmi's Algebra, written by the eminent medieval Islamic sage, Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. Thus, the objective of this research was to carry out a historical-pedagogical study of Al-Khwarizmi's Algebra, highlighting the possible contributions that it may have for Mathematics Education, especially in what concerns the formation of the mathematics teacher. This is a historical bibliographical and documentary research of a qualitative nature. During the research, an instructional material was prepared in the form of an e-book that was designed to satisfy the educational product requirement in the Professional Master's course. In the present research, the e-book plays the role of didactic material to aid math teachers who want to become familiar with al-Khwarizmi's Algebra. In this first presentation of al-Khwarizmi's Algebra to teachers, we chose to privilege the formal, external and physical aspects of the work, because we believe that familiarity with such aspects of the work cited may, in the future, enhance teachers' immersion depth in the historical-mathematical content of the work.