Lulululu reviewed Mathematical discovery by George Pólya
None
4 stars
As a math student about to begin graduate school I enjoyed this book but also found it a little boring. The examples the author gives are nice to keep in your back pocket and his writing style is pleasant and just playful enough to show his personality. That said, I can't help but feel that much of his advice is needlessly repeated throughout each section, which can get a little tiresome. In his defence, the author preaches this teaching technique in the later chapters as a comparison to music and variation on a theme in an effort to find a space of appreciation in the students mind. While I can see this from a lecture perspective, it doesn't work in this book.
If you don't have time for the full book, I would say that volume II outweighs volume I from a teaching perspective. That said, volume I includes perspectives …
As a math student about to begin graduate school I enjoyed this book but also found it a little boring. The examples the author gives are nice to keep in your back pocket and his writing style is pleasant and just playful enough to show his personality. That said, I can't help but feel that much of his advice is needlessly repeated throughout each section, which can get a little tiresome. In his defence, the author preaches this teaching technique in the later chapters as a comparison to music and variation on a theme in an effort to find a space of appreciation in the students mind. While I can see this from a lecture perspective, it doesn't work in this book.
If you don't have time for the full book, I would say that volume II outweighs volume I from a teaching perspective. That said, volume I includes perspectives on problem solving and examples that are classics and serve as great material to give to your students. I was surprised to learn ways to describe methods of problem which I followed subconsciously that I was never aware of.